The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146582   Message #3395225
Posted By: Reinhard
26-Aug-12 - 12:33 AM
Thread Name: ADD: Why Should the Women Work More Than 9 Hr.
Subject: ADD: Nine Hours a Day
This is from "My Song Is My Own: 100 Women' Songs" by Kathy Henderson with Frankie Armstrong and Sandra Kerr, page 128:

NINE HOURS A DAY

1.All through this good old land of ours, commotion there has been,
And in the poor man's working hours great changes we have seen;
But while they struggled for their rights and to improve their lot,
Their poor white slaves are left at home neglected and forgot.

Then help all the women, boys,
They're the pride of our land we all say,
So why should our women work
More than nine hours a day?


2.“What can the women have to do?” the men will often say,
“They only have to cook and sew, and pleasant pass the day.”
But let a man just take her place when baby begins to roar
He'll find himself in such a mess he'd never try no more.

3.First the children must be dressed, and breakfast got you know,
There's Tommy standing on his head while Jack upsets the po;
There's Sally at the water with firewood setting sail,
While Bobby makes an awful noise by twisting pussy's tail.

4.At one o'clock the hooter goes, the men come home to dine,
And if it's not all ready done look out then for a shine.
At five o'clock he's finished work and and then he does the grand:
While you are slaving like a Turk he's singing “Happy Land”.      

5.You factory girls of England now who get such little pay
The roses from your blooming cheeks hard work has driven away.
Oft-times to please your masters you're working past your time,
But if you're late they'll shut the gate and make you pay a fine.

6.Young women then, take my advice, when courting your young man,
Tell him when the knot is tied that this will be your plan:
Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and then eight hours for play
And Sundays must be all your own, and ‘night work’ double pay!

In 1871 a spontaneous movement among workers demanding a nine-hour day sprang up in the northeast and swept across the country. The writers of this broadside were not slow to apply the theme to domestic work.