If you read some of the documents of the time, the main objection to women and children working down the mine was the morality aspect, as the miners often worked naked. The miners were singularly unimpressed with the interfering busybodies from London, as the family unit was a team, and by working together they could win more coal. The men hewed the coal, the women hauled the tubs, and the children operated the ventilation doors. By removing the women and children the family incomes was decimated, leading to notions of a family wage where the man became the breadwinner and the women and children were marginalised.