Like much of Davis’s work, this short story could be shelved within several different genres of literature. Firstly, the story is most clearly an example of the 19th-century social realism genre. This is visible in its detailed portrayal of everyday life and its focus on the struggles of lower-class workers in the horizonless world of industrial production. Mill workers are not merely faceless laborers in this tale, but people with inner depths and real aspirations. This genre is meant to inspire the reader to activism and social reform. By highlighting the dismal lives of people like Deb and Hugh Wolfe, Davis encourages readers to consider their own roles in effecting societal change.
This short story was published in 1861 but became popular again in the 1970s as a work of early feminist literature. Scholars take interest in the way that female hardships, like those Deb is forced to endure, take center stage. Works in this genre draw attention to the economic oppression that women experience in a male-dominated world. They attempt to give a voice to the often-silenced internal lives of women. This was a progressive approach at the time of publication and is considered one of the hallmarks of Davis’s writing.
Finally, "Life in the Iron Mills" is also a work of American naturalism. This genre works around the idea that a person’s destiny is largely decided for them. Characters' fates are shaped by their environment, their heredity, and their social conditions. In Davis's fictional world, people who are born into the social class that labors in the iron mills have almost no way out of it. The mill is almost a god-like figure in the life of the town, as it exerts an irresistible influence over Davis’s characters’ lives. It dictates their opportunities and often their destinies.
