This moral and economic tension extended to broader societal concerns. A challenge working-class women in the textile industry often faced was the notion that factory work could lead to moral decline, fueling fears of widespread prostitution. This anxiety was reflected in literature of the time, with several novels depicting female characters who fell into prostitution after entering factory work. Often, these narratives attributed their downfall to spending wages on ‘finery’ or clothing, which was seen as fostering vanity and eventual vice. Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848), set in Manchester, exemplifies these themes. From the 1840s to the 1920s, such questions about the relationship between the clothing women wore and the clothing they made generated moral panics. Works like Benjamin Disraeli's Sybil (1845), Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie (1900), Emile Zola's Au Bonheur des Dames (1883), and Honoré de Balzac's Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (1847) similarly explored these themes.
This moral and economic tension extended to broader societal concerns A challenge working-class women in the textile industry often faced was the notion that factory work could lead to moral decline, fueling fears of widespread prostitution. This anxiety was reflected in literature of the time, with several novels depicting female characters who fell into prostitution after entering factory work. Often, these narratives attributed their downfall to spending wages on ‘finery’ or clothing, which was seen as fostering vanity and eventual vice. Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848), set in Manchester, exemplifies these themes. From the 1840s to the 1920s, such questions about the relationship between the clothing women wore and the clothing they made generated moral panics. Works like Benjamin Disraeli's Sybil (1845), Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie (1900), Emile Zola's Au Bonheur des Dames (1883), and Honoré de Balzac's Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (1847) similarly explored these themes.