As elements go down a group from top to bottom, they don't get closer to filling up their outermost electron energy level, but that outermost electron level gets further away from the nucleus. Would it be harder or easier to remove an electron. from an element further down in a group

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.