Paper Title
Silk Factory Women Worker and National Economic Growth
Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
Asia, Europe, modern, children, feminist, gender, religion, war
Abstract
This paper analyzes the effect of child labor on national economic growth. From before the industrial revolution, Japan, China, the US and the UK commonly hired children as workers. For factory owners, young workers were readily accessible for low wages and long working hours. Parents of working children were generally poor farmers and needed cash to survive in the short run, but at the same time, they wanted to provide a “better” future for their child. Until the economic growth of low income countries stabilized, large families meant many working hands. Children often started working as young as 5 years of age and assumed a role as a major contributor to their family’s survival.
This paper focuses on the silk industry during the Japanese industrial revolution and war time period, between 1800 and 1945. Since Japan attracted Chinese silk mediated export by Ainu, more study of producing silk was developed between 16c and 19c. After the seclusion was over, the silk industry was Japan’s largest industry in terms of production and export rapid growth. After relating child labor in the silk industry to the economic growth of Japan, we would explore how the growth of silk industries used child labor in China, the USA and UK and relate these to the nation’s GDP
.
Keywords
child labor, silk mill woman workers, Japanese silk factory and economy growth
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Silk Factory Women Worker and National Economic Growth
This paper analyzes the effect of child labor on national economic growth. From before the industrial revolution, Japan, China, the US and the UK commonly hired children as workers. For factory owners, young workers were readily accessible for low wages and long working hours. Parents of working children were generally poor farmers and needed cash to survive in the short run, but at the same time, they wanted to provide a “better” future for their child. Until the economic growth of low income countries stabilized, large families meant many working hands. Children often started working as young as 5 years of age and assumed a role as a major contributor to their family’s survival.
This paper focuses on the silk industry during the Japanese industrial revolution and war time period, between 1800 and 1945. Since Japan attracted Chinese silk mediated export by Ainu, more study of producing silk was developed between 16c and 19c. After the seclusion was over, the silk industry was Japan’s largest industry in terms of production and export rapid growth. After relating child labor in the silk industry to the economic growth of Japan, we would explore how the growth of silk industries used child labor in China, the USA and UK and relate these to the nation’s GDP
.