Americas Women

Women were expected to do so much but at the same time so little. They had no power to do what they desire because men had all the power to control them. Society had an expectation of how women were supposed to act. For instance, Mary’s father cared for his sons education he wanted them to know how to read, write, and to do sums, as for his daughters he only cared that they knew how to read and sew. That is the basic that women were allowed to learn it was not important for them to know more since all they were going to work for is taking care of children. Here is an example, “…Gender roles within those families the reinforcement of gender ideals such as “helpmeet” and “notable housewife” by religious and civil authorities, and the simple

(Ulrich p. 5) Her research clearly establishes that despite the hierarchal and patriarchal nature of their society, women during this time contributed in essential and complex ways not only to their households and their communities, but the story of women is a central and crucial part of our American history. Ulrich supports her thesis by showing women adeptly performed any job necessary that benefited the family including that of deputy husband; “women played a central part in the communications network” which connected neighborhoods; women controlled sexual behavior; women engaged in and controlled significant trade; women exercised “considerable influence in the churches” and “enlarged the meaning of their own lives” as Christians; and women demonstrated heroic qualities “in the face of hardships of

As different as the ladies who possessed North America from 1600 to 1750 were, their lives shared a few shared characteristics. All ladies worked inside a genuinely inflexible sexual division of work, in spite of the fact that the real errands doled out to them shifted from culture to culture. Most ladies' parts included childbearing, childrearing, and nourishment get ready. Inside their conditions, ladies tended to frame solid securities with other ladies in comparative conditions the corn processors of the Pueblos, the grower of the Iroquois, the female dealing systems of New Englanders, and the strong groups of slave ladies are among the most evident cases. With a few exemptions, ladies shared a prohibition from direct political cooperation.

Women in the Revolution by Mary Beth Norton explains the hardships that women faced during the American Revolutionary War. Throughout the writing it is explained women’s role in the Revolution and how they impacted the lives of others. In the writing it explains specific groups of women and how they were influenced by the war. Throughout the war women faced just as many difficulties as those who were fighting in the war. The efforts of women in the revolutionary war were very important in the course of women’s civil rights.

Carol Berkin’s book, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independence, asserts that the Revolutionary War was not a romantic time period in our nation’s history. It was one of upheaval, tremendous discord and violence. The Revolutionary War was not one fought on distant shores, but one of blurring the lines between the battlefield and the home front. The war touched all classes of people from those of the new American nobility down to Blacks and First Nation. It provides us in a series of what I call vignettes or snapshots of the war and its effects. We are provided on how these differences between all the differing groups impacted the daily lives of women.

The American Revolutionary war was a war between the U.S and Britain. It started in 1775 and lasted until 1783 and it was fought to gain independence over the U.S. Many people only think of men when it comes to wars, especially back in the 1700’s, but women made a huge impact on this war as well. Women provided great care to the men, made incredible spies, formed organizations, and even helped fight on the frontier. Even though women do not get the credit for winning the war, they played a significant role in making it happen. One of the traditional roles that women took on during the war was being housewives and taking care of the soldiers.

In the second half of the colonial time period in North America, ever-nearing the American Revolution in 1775, there were much fewer roles for women. While they still dealt with and controlled everything having to do with childbirth and the family, their professional lives were downgraded. Their three main jobs were to watch the children, encourage faith in the house, and be subordinate to men (Dunklee 2). As education was becoming slightly more widespread, only men were taking advantage of higher education, meaning they were the ones who would receive the jobs. Even if a lady did happen to be wealthy enough and come from a powerful enough family to get higher education, they were not socially accepted into having jobs. Women were reduced to only having what was seen as small tasks, caretaking, sewing and writing (WIC 2). All of the jobs available were chores to benefit the individual family, not be put out into society. Even the more creative exercises such as writing poetry, were done for the woman’s own benefit as a creative outlet, not as something to be put out into the world as it was for many men (Bloch). The roles available to women had evolved to include very few options, many of which weren’t even to be recognized by

Thesis: women from all walks of life and their families actively participated in the Revolutionary War to fulfill their ideal roles as nurtures and helpmates of their husbands.

The roles of women in the french Revolutionary War and the French and American War have many differences and similarities. Woman in these wars couldn’t do a lot for their families. But they still had gone out to help the suffrage for women.

She describes what actions women had to take a part of in order to succeed on the founding of this nation. Her ideas are consistently on actions women took part of, and how women’s actions led to defeating the British. The author uses evidence to back up her arguments on women's actions, before the war, she points out how women took a part of their life to boycott all British goods making their profits drop, to show their American resistance to taxation. Women vowed to not drink tea or purchase British imported goods until laws were repealed for example laws such as Stamp Act and Townshend Act.

     Although they were fighting for a worthy cause, many did not agree with these women’s radical views. These conservative thinkers caused a great road-block on the way to enfranchisement. Most of them were men, who were set in their thoughts about women’s roles, who couldn’t understand why a woman would deserve to vote, let alone want to vote. But there were also

In 1837 Sarah Josepha Hale became the new editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book until she retired in 1877. In her work she challenged societal expectations of gender norms and brought attention towards social inequalities surrounding women.

Before the 1920s, when women took a big step for themselves, they had to go through a lot of hardships. Leading up to the significant life changing events of the 1920s women often congregated to protest inequalities and help make America a place where women can be treated as equal. The Years between 1790 and 1850 witnessed a remarkable growth in female schooling (Solomon 14). This growth shows

Surely, she craved to write—meaning to work here—endangered her husband’s position as an authority. He would not have control any longer toward the narrator—his wife. In the 19th century upper class and middle class women were not expected to earn their own living. Women rarely had careers and most professions refused entry to women. In the middle of the 19th century it was virtually impossible for women to become doctors, engineers, architects, accountants or bankers. After a long struggle the medical profession allowed women to become doctors. It was not until 1910 that women were allowed to become accountants and bankers. However, there were still no women diplomats, barristers or judges. Women were allowed to become teachers majority of women became teaches but this was also a low paying job.

The Colonial era spans nearly two hundred years with each settlement in the New World containing distinctive characteristics. Location in the new world is one factor that shaped women’s lives but religion and economics also played a massive role. These roles however were constantly changing and often contradicting. Since there is numerous factors that contributed to the shaping of women’s private and public roles in the seventeenth and eighteenth century it is impossible to categories all colonial woman in one group. Some historians refer to this period as the golden age of women; however, I tend to see this period as oppressive, with only few examples of women exercising social and public powers.