[IrishBrigade]

In places where women were abundant they were treated with no respect at all.

Documented historical references supporting that assertion would be nice...

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Do you know the name Carrie Bell? She was a young lady that was raped by the son of the house she was living in and got pregnant.

Because of this she was judged to be mentally defective and morally degenerate by no less a personage then Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and seven other justices of the SCOTUS. She and her daughter were then sterilized.

While her case was extreme because of the fact it got to the SCOTUS it was more then common for women who worked for their living to be raped and then thrown out of their jobs when a pregnancy resulted.

If you wish more information you could go and read the newspapers of the time.