Working from home while raising children
After the death of her husband, Killian's employer, who was also her brother-in-law, installed a glove-making machine in her home so she could earn a wage while raising her children. Killian became both a working mother and a stay-at-home mom.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Kathryn Killian and Blanche Bolick, December 12, 1979. Interview H-0131. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
I still can't get it straight when they put a machine in your
home and you started making them here?
- KATHRYN KILLIAN:
-
I can't tell you exactly when it was because I
don't remember. If was sometime after they started the
business. But I can't even remember
that in years. '45 or '46, I don't
remember which one. It was sometime after that I went back to work. My
baby was really small, he was born in '44.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
So did you ask to have the machine put in your home, instead of going
in?
- KATHRYN KILLIAN:
-
Well you see it was my sister and her husband and of course they wanted
to do all they could for me, and they knew that I made gloves and they
said that they would do that.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Well, could you make as much working at home?
- KATHRYN KILLIAN:
-
Uh huh. The only thing is you'd have to stay at your machine
at home, just like you would if your were at the mill, if you want to
make as much. Oh, it helped a great deal, I'll tell you.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
How would your day go? Would you really just sit down and work for eight
hours without stopping?
- KATHRYN KILLIAN:
-
No, no. You were just up and down, up and down. They did it so I could
take care of my children and make a living at the same time. It
wasn't easy, but some people have a harder lot than I do.
I'm just thankful that I could work.
