American Family From Obligation To Freedom Summary

In the late nineteenth century women were beginning to find a place in the more public spheres of life. Larger numbers of women than ever were in paid employment; by 1874 twenty percent of females over fifteen were employed. Many

Mary B. Mullett, an author who’s ideas were expressed in “The Biggest Thing That Lindbergh Has Done”, shows us that being a moral and modest man is much more honorable than being wealthy. (D-F) This idea would obviously cause tension with the wealthy, who thought that they were the “big cheese” simply because of their net worth. Not only was the common man looked at with more prestige than ever before, but the common woman gained much more power as well. A graph comparing the marriage and divorce rates between 1890 and 1930 shows clearly that during the 1920’s, marriage rates decreased and divorce rates increased. (D-G) From this graph we can infer that the reason behind this sudden drop in marriage is because woman had gained more independence, both politically and economically. The tension that women create during this era eventually prevails with the 19th amendment, which gives them the right to vote.

The economic “market revolution” and the religious “Second Great Awakening” shaped American society after 1815. Both of these developments affected women significantly, and contributed to their changing status both inside and outside the home. Throughout time, women’s roles and opportunities in the family, workplace, and society have greatly evolved.

The 19th century was the start of the American industrial revolution that transitioned the rural nation to one that was more urbanized with the rise of big businesses. Factory owners were now able to hire less skilled workers due to methods such as taylorism in factory production. That shift triggered the need to to hire more unskilled laborers like women and children, will to work for low wages. Like many of the citizens of the lower class, the women working in these factories weren’t benefiting from the economic boom that was provided by the industrial revolution but the ability for them to be able to contribute to the income need for their family to survive empowered them with the feelings of independence and economic power. Following years

During the 1800’s, women were subject to increasing discrimination, especially throughout the public sphere. Women were expected to take care of the house, children, and the husband. There was a fundamental belief that men owned their wives, allowing a gross

So, with the struggle of the American dream at hand, the role of a female in America changed for the better. The new young American woman was no longer rushed to get married. “Between 1880 and 1930, a bachelor

In the mid to late 1700's, the women of the United States of America had practically no rights. When they were married, the men represented the family, and the woman could not do anything without consulting the men. Women were expected to be housewives, to raise their children, and thinking of a job in a factory was a dream that was never thought impossible. But, as years passed, women such as Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Elizabeth Blackwell began to question why they were at home all day raising the children, and why they did not have jobs like the men. This happened between the years of 1776 and 1876, when the lives and status of Northern middle-class woman was changed forever. Women began to

Starting in the nineteenth century women’s rights was a very hushed subject, it wasn’t really talked about because everyone thought of women as being the homemakers, taking care of the family and making meals while the men went out and worked. During

Women’s roles in the American household had been the same since the discovery of America to 1848. Women in the simplest of terms were meant to run the household, raise the children, cook, clean, etc. This began changing in 1848 when women wanted to break free from the social norms and develop a social role outside of the household. Women felt that their lives would be completely transformed if they earned the right to vote; once they earned the vote then they would earn equality across the board. This desire for social change began boiling many years before 1848 when women began reading and writing domestic novels expressing anger towards women’s dependency on men. They began attending women’s academies and formed ladies’ benevolent societies where they pursued their own personal interest and activities. Then in 1848 approximately 200 women gathered together to hold the first women’s rights convention in the United States. This convention discussed the social, civil, religious condition and rights of women. There would go on to be 10 National Women’s Rights Conventions and The National Women’s Suffrage Association along with the National Women’s Party. “Although social change was a constant in the American Republic, women were expected to be the stable unchanging element in a changing world.” Although the Women's rights movement allowed the equal treatment of men and women it did cause so much pain for so many women. The Women's rights movement created equality and justice,

Early twentieth century America is shaped by World War I , the effects of industrial growth, and a beginning of a new age in literature. Despite movements for progressive reforms like the prohibition of alcohol and the movement for women’s suffrage women’s rights were still limited by traditional gender roles. Women are a “detached portion” of their husbands and expected to submit to his every demand. As result of women being viewed as flighty and emotionally unstable, men must take the dominant role and every decision made in the family is approved by them. Moreover, the purpose of a woman’s life is to maintain a household and birth and care for her

In the early 1800’s, when the new nation was beginning to form, the young nation’s founding fathers began to shape a new country to free the oppressed Europeans who found a taste of freedom. However that freedom only went so far, for our founding fathers and authors of the U.S Constitution, managed to create a gender biased society and only managed to exclude an entire gender from the new hope they created. By this time, the development in the young country and the expansion of the American economy had begun. This meant that there were jobs available for people who wanted to earn a living to feed their families. Unfortunately, due to the law and what it represented, only Caucasian men could work outside of their homes to bring back some income to feed their families. Unfortunately for the next 200 years, several of the nation’s mothers, sisters and wives were engaged in a battle against society and social norms, as they begun to turn against the status quo, by demanding equal rights, such as the right to vote. Their eyes opened to the oppression around them and they sought change. However they faced obstacles such as social rejection. They were considered too frail and less intelligent to handle jobs and involvement in the government, which were considered ‘a man’s work’. Several influential women such as Alice Paul thought differently and made it their goal to encourage society to rethink about the role of a woman.

The nineteenth-century saw great changes within America and from these changes an ideology was created in an effort of understanding and unification among white men. Changes were occurring so rapidly that they could not be digested and readily accepted, therefore opposition to these rose very significantly. The nineteenth century saw for a great number of political changes as the black race began to collect rights, the arrival of immigrants on an unprecedented scale, the colonization of the remaining world, and the change of women’s roles. White women started to become more educated and moved out of the house and into workplace disrupting the domestic order

During the early 1800's women were stuck in the Cult of Domesticity. Women had been issued roles as the moral keepers for societies as well as the nonworking house-wives for families. Also, women were considered unequal to their male companions legally and socially. However, women’s efforts during the 1800’s were effective in challenging traditional intellectual, social, economical, and political attitudes about a women’s place in society.

In the early nineteenth century, women were expected to be, “‘angels in the house,’ loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste wives, mothers and daughters or they are… ultimately doomed” (King et al. 23). Women of this time were supposed to be domestic creatures and not tap so far into their intellectual abilities (King et al.). The role of women in the nineteenth century is described:

Did you know that in 1851 there were 25,000 women employed as governesses? These were women employed to work in the house of wealthy or upper middle-class families as teachers. Being a teacher in a school or in someone else’s home was the only legitimate job opportunity for middle class educated women who needed employment in 19th-century society. They were seen as outsiders in the households where they lived and worked. This made for a life full of social and emotion tension (Hughes, Figure of the Governess).