Self-betterment

Before the 1850s, when women figured most prominently in textile employment, the reasons that caused women to seek paid labor—a ne'er-do-well husband, economic distress of the natal family, or a belief that factory work was a road to self-betterment—often precluded their considering an away-from-home cure.

Specifically, they recount ideological testimonials that frame ideology in terms of personal growth and self-betterment.