In the 1800s, factories hired more women and children than they had in the past because a. factory owners wanted to entire families earn a better living. b. most male laborers had left the cities to move to rural areas. c. machines could now do the heavy labor formerly done by men. d. most men stopped working in factories to join the us army.

Read the following passage. the early mill girls were of different ages. some were not over ten years old; a few were in middle life, but the majority were between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. the very young girls were called "doffers." they "doffed," or took off, the full bobbins from the spinning frames, and replaced them with empty ones. based on the passage, early mill girls were mostly young. were mostly middle aged. were of a variety of ages. were mostly children.