And Doing Them Well, Huldy Was Met With Disproval.After

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

After marriage, the husband was considered lord and master of the family. But not all the women were meek and submissive. By the 1700's, the woman’s status had rapidly improved in colonial America. A wife and child made as much as a man did. Although women did not have equality with men, their status greatly improved from their status in Europe. A woman’s station in life was determined by the position of their husbands or fathers. The women of the poorest families, compiled to work in the fields, stood at the bottom of the social ladder. One of the surest signs of the accomplishments a family had made, was the exemption of their women from the fields. Before 1740, girls were trained in household crafts and the practical arts of family management. But afterwards they began to study subjects that required reading and studying such subjects as grammer and arithmetic. The women of the upper classes occupied themselves mainly with planning the work of the home and with supervising the domestic servants. Along with these tasks the women also baked, nursed, and sewed. But there were many social restrictions placed on the women of that time. One such restriction was that a wife, in absence of her husband, was not allowed to lodge men even if they were close relatives. For

After 1815, the female was viewed in a more respectful persona in society. Women’s rights were beginning to grow. They were helping more in religious growth, and helping in the abolition of slavery. “On every principle of natural justice, as well as by the nature of our institutions, she is as fully entitled as man to vote and to be eligible to office.” (Document F). Many females were involved in the growth of religion, including the Second Great Awakening. With the females being the ones who take the children to church, they were prone to having a deeper belief for their religion. And with that, they would try to inspire religious growth. The Second Great Awakening spurred reform, prison, church, temperance, abolition, women’s rights, and Christianizing Indians. With women fighting for what they believe in, the women were finding themselves to have a new found respect; from both themselves and men. Document E illustrates this by females walking down a street with a sense of confidence.

In her tale Dame Alice claims once again that the most important thing to a woman is to have control and dominance in a relationship with a man. This is seen when the knight returns to the castle to answer the queen’s question, saying "a woman wants the self-same sovereignty over her husband as over her lover, and master him, he must not be above her" (174-176). As part of a previous arrangement the knight is saved, but must marry the old hag. The woman knows that her new husband is upset that she is old and ugly, so she decides to give him a choice. The hag questions the knight as to whether he would rather have her old and faithful or young and unfaithful. The knight tells the hag that the decision is hers to choose what she thinks will be best. Because the knight was wise enough to give the woman the choice to choose for herself the old hag was able to become young, beautiful and good. The Wife’s tale demonstrates that life will be better for a man when he gives his

In the early 19th century, women were oppressed, and marriage was a social status, not a choice. Mrs. Mallard was a wife during 19th Century and her home was where she would spend most of her days. She also suffers from a heart condition. She learns of the tragic news on the first floor of her two story home. Her sister Josephine was the one to tell her “ in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing.”(287) The news was revealed as delicate as possible, due to Mrs. Mallard's heart condition. Mrs. Mallard heard the news, she wept, a sense of grief comes upon her. Once she removed herself from her sister Josephine's arms, she went off to her room. It reads, “ When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. No one to follow her”(287). During this time, women were looked down upon if they were not married. Most women were given away by their

In nineteenth century America, women were not given the same rights and freedoms as their spouses/ men. Women were expected to be submissive to their husbands though they did have some authority within the private sphere. The private sphere is comprised of the home and family. During this time, women were responsible for being a mother and wife; however, with the Second Great Awakening, women were being to have more freedoms and responsibilities. New roles allowed for mothers to teach their children religion in their homes and women took up an interest in attending religious revival meetings (Hewitt, Lawson 357). A fair number of women were enticed with the religious revival movement because it allowed women to leave their private sphere and participate in the public sphere. Women were given an opportunity to conjugate with each other and practice their beliefs that allowed them to slowly partake in the reform (Hewitt, Lawson 352). The religious revival meetings attracted thousands to attend, most of who were women, and “pray” in a group (Frances Trollope – Description of a Revival Meeting, 1832). In Document 11.7, Frances Trollope, English author,

Though Newsom supposedly purchased Celia with the intention of fulfilling “a sexual partner”, it was likely that Celia did not feel the companionship following that term (21). In the manner that McLaurin phrased it, Celia was more of an object of accessible abuse rather than a comforting replacement for Newsom’s wife (21). However, Celia birthed two

Masculinity didn’t do a good job of attaining the hoped-for standards, as they didn’t have other equally profound consequences for American middle-class culture at this time. It justified the exclusion of women from the world as acceptable to both women and men at this time, and it cultivated strong bonds around women as well. They in fact shared the biological experiences central to their definition as women and spoke the same language of virtue and piety, which essentially means that they instilled a awareness of a set of common goals for them and experiences present for them, which had values specific to women, and distinct from those of men. The key to this was the extensive networks of female friends that were present during this time period for these women. Since women were supposedly better than men during this time, it was feasible and easy to believe that women were obliged and privileged to work together and help other women, who were fallen, and poor, who were having some sort of trouble during this time period as a result of the society that they were present in during this time period. Southern white women during this time were aware of the ideology of domesticity during this time, and they would try to implement it and its teachings for their lives, but their expectations were frequently articulated during this time period. There was little industrialization, domestication, urbanization, immigration, and therefore, social dislocation present during

The article, The Cult of Womanhood: 1820 - 1860 written by Barbara Welter discusses the philosophy towards women in America during the mid 19th century. A set of demands and expectations based upon four principles: piety, purity, submission and domesticity were placed on women as well as certain behavioral expectations left 19th century women feeling guilty. It also left women feeling this way during the industrialization period as well as having a huge presence of incompatibility with society. Welter shares her viewpoint that the Cult of Womanhood was an attempt to preserve pre modern values in the industrial age. Men held a dominant place in society and continued to prevent new opportunities for women to explore. Narrow minded

The next requirement for being a “true woman” was submissiveness. According to society men were superior to women by “God’s appointment.” If they acted otherwise they “tampered with the order of the Universe” (Welter 105). A “true woman” would not question this idea because she already understands her place. Grace Greenwood explained to the women of the Nineteenth Century, “True feminine genius is ever timid, doubtful, and clingingly dependant; a perpetual childhood.” Even in the case of an abusive husband, women were sometimes told to stay quiet

Women haven’t always had the freedom that they have today. Women were supposed to live a certain life even though sometimes they didn’t want to. They had to tend to their husbands at all time, stay home and do housework while still taking care of their children or being pregnant. Women were abused physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Although women were perceived to act and present themselves in a certain way, some young women went against the cult of the true woman hood not only to be different, but to escape he physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that they will or have encountered. In novels, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Path and Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid both young women have the similarity to rebel against the cult of true

During the eighteenth century, marriage was a representation of not only the unity between man and women but it was also a representation of a woman taking a servile, less meaningful role in the household. Once married, women were expected to be completely submissive to their husbands. This was the norm across Europe and even in enlightened society. These relationships were hierarchical. It was not customary for women to attend schools that educated men the math and sciences. Women holding privileged positons in society traditionally allotted to men were seen as the exception. Yet these exceptions did not generally bother society because they did not lead to certain conclusion that women could do anything. In Gotthold Lessing’s novel “Nathan the Wise” and Francoise de Graffigny’s “Letters from a Peruvian Woman”, both authors upset traditional expectations about what constitutes a novel’s happy ending by refusing to end either of their novels with weddings. In Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise”, the rejection of marriage plot reflects a larger symbolic representation of religious tolerance. While in Graffigny’s novel “Letters from a Peruvian Woman”, the rejection of marriage plots illustrates a woman whose circumstances would make her the exception. Zilia, Graffigny’s main character, was an enlightened woman who chose sovereignty over servitude. Therefore, I would argue that the intentions behind both Lessing and Graffigny’s rejection of the marriage plot was not to serve the same

But what is one to do? I did write for a while inspite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal – having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition”. (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, 1898). Here one can see that the narrator wished to work and have a change in her domestic life, but the struggle to keep it a secret from her husband was too great because she knew he would not approve. Marriage, which is supposed to represent unity, love and the coming together of two equal partners was anything but that for the narrator. In the 19th century women were at the mercy of men, even though they marched forward for equality they were still very much dependent on their male counterparts. They were not allowed to have control over their assets and therefor marriage was the best solution to live a comfortable life seeing as their parents could not provide for their daughters forever. In The Yellow Wallpaper the prisonlike feeling that marriage causes the narrator, eventually leads to her insanity. Which for some was probably an actual occurrence in that era. More

This character, Celia shows us a new concept that not only the person who is getting raped life’s endangered, but the person who is the rapist could have their life endangered. The reasoning is of course self defense as should by Celia. This brings in a new debate on a right of life, if the slave should be executed for killing her master or if the slave’s life should be saved because she was defending her life. It brings in the debate on that murder is terrible, but in what scenario is it acceptable in self-defense to kill someone. Her logic is simple in that she felt like her life was at stake and had to act quickly

Early modern European society relied heavily on relatively strict gender roles. Although work that men and women performed regarding early modern European economy was relatively the same, these two genders were affected by different factors. While men were usually only affected by factors such as age, class, and skill, women were affected by several more such as marriage, widowhood, and motherhood (Wiesner-Hanks, 2008). Marriage during these times were usually for business and status, as opposed to a true human connection. When a young person is vowed to another for marriage, they are also set up with a dowry, or credit to help support their married-life, and occupation. Marrying another individual could even be considered a strategic economic approach to accumulating status and privilege. While both men and women are set up with a dowry, it is almost always the bride that must move from her own household to that of the groom’s or groom’s parents. Gluckel herself was vowed by her parents at the age of twelve, and married off nearly two years later. Because of such an early commitment, Gluckel had a very short, practically nonexistent childhood. She doesn’t write much about her own personal experiences during childhood, but more about her immediate, and extended family members’ escapades. Come to think of it, it is possible that