 During the early period , women came to the mills of their own accord , for various reasons : to help a brother pay for college , for the educational opportunities offered in Lowell , or to earn a supplementary income for themselves . While their wages were only half of what men were paid , many were able to attain economic independence for the first time , free from controlling fathers and husbands . As a result , while factory life would soon come to be experienced as oppressive , it enabled these women to challenge assumptions of female inferiority and dependence . 
