ABSTRACT
Women were evidently important to the silk industry. They were highly noticeable, a group who attracted comment rather than being lost in the shadow of male workers. The silk industry was one of the earliest to move to factory production. Women remained important to the silk industry in the early nineteenth century, although the handloom weaving of broad silk, which developed in Macclesfield in the 1790s, was largely a male occupation. In Macclesfield, women and the silk industry were of great mutual importance. The industry depended on female labour, and women looked to the mills for employment. Work in silk was the common experience. Warping was one job done by women which required considerable ability and which was not easily learned. The silk industry did not offer women workers a career and status, any more than it offered them high rates of pay. Its beneficial effects upon women cannot be found in material recompenses.
