Mary Wollstonecraft and Jean Jacques Rousseau strolled into the the hottest new textile factory in all of Great Britain. As they walked in, the owner of the factory greeted them. He wouldn’t normally let random people in but these were no random people. These were the 2 most famous factory critics and perhaps the only. They walked into the building and tried to get a view of the whole factory. Rousseau and Wollstonecraft saw people of all ages laboring. Even kids that shouldn’t be working that young, let alone be away from their parents all day. They even saw women working. Mary was exuberant to see a fellow woman on the job meanwhile Jean’s face turned red. He was furious to see a womans doing what he considered a man's job.

“I’ve never seen this before!” Jean blared out! He began pacing around trying to keep his cool. “Why are there so many women?”

“Jean, it’s 1801. Times are changing,”  Mary couldn’t help but get offended. “What gives men the right to say things like this? Plus, you believe in the social contract so why does it apply to women?”

“The social contract requires men to give up some rights. Women can’t do this because they don’t have rights to give up,” John reasoned.

“Why are you exacerbating me?” questioned Mary hostiley.

“I’m sorry that you find the truth hurtful,” John considered this the truth, but Mary considered it completely false.

As they argued, the workers kept laboring away. They say they have liberty, but they are just slaves to the system. They are trapped in this job. If they quit they can’t provide help for their family. It’s their way of life. Their only way of life.

A larger man named Charles was sitting at his weaving station. His chubby fingers barely could grab a thread. His weaving was by far the slowest in the factory. The clamp on the machine kept squeaking. The man was very impatient because he had been working for 10 hours already. He heard the machine one more time and thought that’s it. As he went to tighten the clamp that had been causing the trouble, his finger managed to get in between the clamp just before it tightened. No problem he thought. “arg-arrrrrg,” the man groaned as he tried to pull his finger loose. He pulled with all of his weight but it only resulted in finger pain. The handle to loosen it was broken in half. He tried to grab it but he could not keep it in his hand while pulling. The handle was just too small. Charles was large, but he still wasn’t the strongest man in the factory. He called over an even larger man named Aldrich.

“Good day Aldrich, could you help me get my finger out of this clamp?” Asked Charles.

“Why of course Charles,” “But I must have to say that you have gotten yourself into quite the predicament here, haven’t you?” Mocked Aldrich.

“Yes Aldrich, but if you could please help me out sooner than later?” Charles squeezed out. His finger was starting to turn red. Not just any any shade of red. The shade of an extremely ripe apple.

Aldrich finally stepped up to the machine. With the confidence of a Greek god. “Charles, don’t be surprised if I am able to get you free on my first try.” Aldrich grasped the handle with one hand pressed as hard as he could but he kept losing his grip. “Don’t worry just a little slippery,” Aldrich reassured Charles, but most importantly he reassured himself. He kept pulling, slipping then resetting. Aldrich’s cheeks turned red when he realised that he couldn’t set Charles’ finger loose.

Jean and Mary noticed the commotion coming from the weaving station. “What’s that Mary?” asked Jean.

“I know just as much as you Jean,” Mary was annoyed with Jean’s ignorance. “Why don’t you go figure it out? Maybe that way you can stop talking so much.”

Jean walked up to the few people standing there and asked “What’s all the commotion?”

“I have gotten my finger stuck in the clamp and it won’t come loose,” said Charles.

“Why not just loosen the clamp?” asked Jean knowing very well that there must be a reason why.

“We have tried but the handle to loosen it is just to small. It broke in half a while back and we haven’t had to adjust it until now,” Chimed in Aldrich.

“Well this is quite the predicament you have gotten yourself into,” said jean.

“Thank you for that great observation, but right now what we need is someone to fix it,” Charles did not find this situation nearly as funny as jean did.

“Let me give it a try,” Jean stepped up to the clamp and pulled. He obviously was unable to do it just like the last two men who tried. “Well, it looks like we need to get a man that is stronger than all of us.”

“If you find a man who can set me free I will give him $3 dollars.”

Jean and Aldrich went into town to find men who can try to free Charles. He went around to all the men and boys asking for their help at the factory.

“Come to the factory and test your strength on a clamp. Whoever is successful will win $3,” exclaimed Jean. When he mentioned the money the men and the women turned. Although it wasn’t that much money, the all of the middle class needed financial help ever since urbanization upped the cost of living. Men started to follow them back to the factory.

When the men and the following got back to the factory Jean organized a line. “See Mary, it’s all men lined up because factory work is a man’s job,” declared Jean.

Mary did not take this well and she had her own plan to get Charles free.

The line of men went outside the entrance of the factory and wrapped around the side. They were five men in and Charles started to get antsy. His finger was now the color of an eggplant.

The type of concentration in the child's eyes who stepped up next was unmeasurable. He gripped the handle pulled with all his might. His hands could stay on, but he couldn’t pull hard enough. The boys’ hands were small enough to grab the handle but they weren’t strong enough to loosen the clamp. This confused Jean like a newly hatched bird.

___

It was to Jean’s disbelief that Mary showed up in the front of the line. Standing next to her was another woman, about 20 years of age. Mary pointed at the machine and told the woman “Go try to pull the handle.”

“What makes you think I can do this?” asked the mysterious woman.

“I’ve been watching all the men do this and fail so I have a pretty good feeling that you can do it,” replied Mary with a smile starting to form.

The woman cautiously walked up to the machine one step at a time. She noticed that there was a crowd of people watching her. All but one of them were expecting her to fail. A drop of sweat flowed down her forehead. Suddenly, she realized that she was dripping. She had never been in front a crowd this big, she was just a housewife. When she gripped the handle her whole hand fit around it. She firmly put the other hand around the first and pulled vigorously.

“She’s too weak,” yells of hate came from throughout the crowd. This just made the woman want to prove them wrong. Adrenaline surged through her body as she furiously pulled.

“Crrrrrrhhh!” The handle started to budge. The cluster of men restrain from chanting.

Someone whispered “Look, she’s moving it.”

“Shhhhhhhhh,” the whole crowd shushed him.

The woman pulled the handle vlaggardly and it came free.

The crowd cheered nervously, surprised that a woman showed them up. Charles let out a cry of joy and hugged the mysterious woman with immense passion.

Mary popped her head out of the crowd and person congratulated the woman. “See, I told you that you were able to do this! Women around here need to believe in themselves more,” Mary enlightened the woman.

Jean staunter up to the pair and shook the woman’s hand. “Looks like the boys had small enough hands, but they were too weak. The men were strong enough, but their hands were too big. Looks like you were just the right person. I was wrong, I’m sorry. Looks like I will be giving this factory a good review.”

“You better because you learned a lot from this,” bantered Mary.

Jean managed to get out “It is against my morals to say this, but I now believe that woman should be able to work here.”

________________

Vlaggardly- (Adverb) To use strength and finesse at the same time.