Story here from [BBC](working women in the 1920s who “gave birth in the factories”) on the french minister returing to work 4 days after giving birth.
*Woman’s rights activist Florence Montreynaud compared Ms Dati to working women in the 1920s who “gave birth in the factories” and lamented that her decision would exacerbate the divide between “superwomen and wimps” in the workforce. *
what is she referring to ??
Nobody, as I recall. By then, if not by the 1860s, most, if not all, women were ministered to by either midwives or real MDs.
OTOH, since one was paid by her working hours, whether she was fucking off or giving birth, I can see women forcing themselves back to work ASAP, just to support her kids. It then, as always, sucked to be a woman, especially one who was the sole provider for her and her children.
OYTOH, men usually had to learn of their childrens’ birth long afterward, at least during the 19th and 20th centuries. In most cases there was little smoking in the fathers’ lounge.
I’ve heard the expression used to refer to cases where women gave birth in the dormitories attached to factories (dormitories sometimes used in the industrial revolution for housing large groups of quasi-slave low-income workers).