 As the nature of the new " factory system " became clear , however , many women joined the broader American labor movement , to protest the dramatic social changes being brought by the Industrial Revolution . While they decried the deteriorating factory conditions , worker unrest in the 1840s was directed mainly against the loss of control over economic life . This loss of control , which came with the dependence on the corporations for a wage , was experienced as an attack on their dignity and independence . In 1845 , after a number of protests and strikes , many operatives came together to form the first union of working women in the United States , the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association . The Association adopted a newspaper called the Voice of Industry , in which workers published sharp critiques of the new industrialism . The Voice stood in sharp contrast to other literary magazines published by female operatives , such as the Lowell Offering , which painted a sanguine picture of life in the mills . 
