Final answer:
The false statement is that a. many women worked to earn money for extras like family vacations. Women's factory earnings were for essential survival and the reduction of women and children in factories was due to mechanization and socio-cultural factors by the end of the nineteenth century.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement about industrial revolution work conditions that is false is: a. many women worked to earn money for extras, like family vacations. Women and children were indeed part of the workforce during the Industrial Revolution, but their earnings were usually necessary for basic survival rather than luxuries such as family vacations.
The increasing mechanization towards the end of the nineteenth century made adult male labor sought after, and it became a point of pride for working-class men to keep their wives out of factories if possible, contrary to the middle-class norm.
On the other hand, it is true that b. many children worked in US factories. However, by the early twentieth century, the number of children working in factories had decreased due to greater mechanization and laws banning child labor.
Also, while c. workers could be hired or fired at will, and d. a large available workforce helped keep wages low, these conditions reflected the harsh realities of industrial employment where workers, facing poverty, accepted low wages and unsafe working conditions because the alternatives were even worse.