Women were forced to work long hours, including during illness, the heat, infection or injuries, or any other unfavourable conditions. All of the factory girls working had to get up before dawn, “The four-thirty bell clanged the house awake”(74). The girls woke up at early hours to complete the long hours of work, only to get paid very little. They worked through the heat during the spring and summer as the sun came and went. Lyddie had not needed to work long to realize the severity of how badly the women working were being treated, “Lyddie heard Mr. Marsden say to a girl at the breakfast break, ‘There’s many a girl who can and will. We’ve no place for sickly girls in this room” (100). It didn’t matter the reason, but if your production dropped
