The act of removing or taking off (clothing, hats, etc.), or the process of replacing bobbins in textile work.
Present participle of 'doff,' formed by adding '-ing.' Used both in literary contexts and in specific industrial terminology.
The word 'doffing' captures an entire vanished world—it's not just removing your hat, it's the specific motion and job of textile workers that was so common in the 1800s that they got their own vocabulary.
Doffing—the removal of full thread bobbins—became gendered female work in mills because it was classified as unskilled and lower-paid than spinning, which was reserved for men.
When discussing 19th-century mill labor, specify the gendered division: 'women performed doffing work.' In modern contexts, use neutrally.
Doffer communities, particularly at Lowell, became centers of female labor organizing and literacy, showing that even in exploited roles, women built power through solidarity.
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