aints of working conditions arouse in several mills and the female workers wanted a change. The workers organized groups during breaks or at their homes. Many of the workers lived together in company homes and it would be easy for them to converse on the conditions in the workplace. Because of the tight living quarters, one was expected and socially forced to cohere with the majority opinion. This could be both a positive and a negative force for the women. Social pressure tends to gathered large numbers, but this could have given rise to irrational thinking and unnecessary action. When in a large group, ideas and thoughts have a tendency to be viewed as less harmful than they would if suggested in a small group. The more people involved, the more chance ideas have a way of being accepted out of fear of being outcast by the larger group. This could have been a major barrier for these workers, although, little is mentioned on this aspect. For the most part, the large numbers provided more power to the women and their cause.A key aspect of a woman’s life was simply belonging to a group. Whether it was in the factories, mills, abolition or women’s movement, or even the Washingtonians, women strived to belong and be apart of an organization of other women. Coherence to social norms and expectations was key to a woman’s success or failure to belong to an organized body. This is seen with the factory girl’s, and their expectation to cohere with the group, otherwise, they would be outcast by the group and their time in the home or work would be long, lonely and painful. Another example of expected social coherence pertained to alcohol. A mother who was fond of the drink was looked down upon by society for not following through with her responsibility to her husband and children, and the same went for the husbands. Heavy social pressure steered many women away from alcohol with the friendly pressure from the Washingt...
