Diaries from Women on the Westward Journey

Illnesses, such as Typhoid and cholera, were common and would spread through the wagon trains creating more work for us women (Bledsoe, 1984). The overworked women would in turn become more vulnerable to becoming sick and perishing. Women who gave birth while on the Oregon Trail faced vast difficulty and in many cases the female pioneer or the new born would die. Women pioneers were usually fairly young because women during this time married as young as 14 but quickly toughened up because of the major responsibilities we faced on the trail. Despite the many hardships faced by myself and the other female pioneers, we helped to pave the

I have changed so much these past weeks It’s crazy! Just at the ceremony I was a small town girl in a small colony. Then I got picked for the testing and It all changed. I can’t believe how tall I’ve become in just a few weeks and how mature I’ve become now. I am not very scared of blood anymore since all that time stitching up thomas and will.

They had the burdens of traveling while pregnant and childbearing as well as the rituals of attending to the sick and dying and the caring of infants and the caring and irritable children. Women also felt themselves in antagonistic relationship with them but more often than not when they maintain their silence. This is expressed in this journal account written by Miriam Davis, “ I have cooked so much out in the hot sun and smoke, I hardly know who I am, and when I look into the little Looking Glass I ask “ can this be me?” Put a blanket over my head and I would pass well for an Osage squaw.” The Westward Expansion was the leading outlet for women to try to break the stereotype of domestic femininity. Proving yet the strength and courage women have always had.

Women did not have an easy life during the American Colonial period. Before a woman reached 25 years of age, she was expected to be married with at least one child. Most, if not all, domestic tasks were performed by women, and most domestic goods and food were prepared and created by women. Women performed these tasks without having any legal acknowledgment. Although women had to endure many hardships, their legal and personal lives were becoming less restricted, although the change was occurring at a snail’s pace.

Colonial women spent most of their life bearing children and most of their adult life raising them . There were some large families of ten to fifteen children, but the average family had six or seven. Many children died from disease in infancy or early childhood (only about half of Colonial infants reached adulthood ). The daughters of Colonial women were trained to be wives and mothers. The girls helped with cooking,

Women helped with the load of the work that men did. They helped with clearing the land in addition to watching over the chores of the house. The women didn’t expect the cold as the old country as said from the interview of Mary Prokop,”That first winter was the very hardest mother had ever experienced and, as she later told us children, at least in the old country, through the food was scarce, they had been been warm. He they were cold and isolated in the unfinished house for the entire severe winter.”(Interview #4)”

Common domestic tasks that women were faced and limited to for a large time frame of history, but specifically during The Battle of Gettysburg were ideally tasks involving the home. A Harvard study on gender roles, specifically women's gender roles throughout history states,“‘Men tended to work outside the home in the fields, while women specialized in activities within the home. This division of labor then generated norms about the appropriate role of women in society. Societies characterized by plough agriculture, and the resulting gender based division of labor, developed the belief that the natural place for women is within the home.’” Because women were limited to the home and family, society had tunnel vision as to what women were capable of. The capability of a women was underestimated because of societal standards at the time, but the argument of women physically being smaller and not as strong as men was also a reason as to why women were not allowed near a battlefield. Some women did not accept this role they were so strictly given. When roles are applied to societal members, rebellion is to be expected, especially when roles are not fitting to every single

Something I learned from Chapter 18 in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is that Ona didn’t have the proper prenatal care during her pregnancy and during the premature labor. Prenatal care is a type of HealthCare that helps expectant mothers have a healthy pregnancy which will help deliver their baby with no health complications. It provides expectant mothers frequent check-ups with doctors, insight on the baby’s development, nutritional information, and information on what to expect during labor. With this care, many mothers will have a lower risk of health complications than those who don’t have the care. Although prenatal care benefits the mother and baby to build a healthy life, there are many pregnant women that go through a lot like Ona did with abuse, neglect, and hunger which prevents them from having the care they need.

Slave women had the hardest role to play in Colonial American women. They started out having to do unskilled work, such as building a fence. Then later on, when slaves became more expensive, women were seen more equal to the slave men. They were then responsible to duties that men were. Women had to work long, hard hours, side by side with men, on plantations. Then, suddenly, the north started having them take care of domestic duties for the owner’s wife. Eventually Southern states caught on, once the wives of the

Many women would have to take over their husband’s normal work, such as running the family business, farm, or plantation. Women would often open their homes to soldiers allowing them to sleep in separate rooms or beds. They would also take in the wounded and help aid them back to health. Homes would also be raided by the British, taking and doing whatever they pleased, during this event women would try to hide themselves and their children to ensure their safety. The woman had to cope with the hard truth that they may never see their husband again after the Revolution. Some women would go to war supporting their husbands becoming what was known as a camp follower. Not all camp followers were soldiers’ wives. The role of camp followers included cooking, washing, sewing, finding supplies, and nursing soldiers in need. Some very brave women even participated in war first hand on the front lines. These

Life in the colonies was different for a female indentured servant and for a native-born female. The law forbade indentured servants to marry until they finished out their contract, which was generally about four to five years of service. Unless she found a man to uplift her contract, she would have to bear a rough beginning (Hawke 63-64). The exposure to malaria left women vulnerable to more deadly diseases, the physical work was harder in the colonies than in England due to the fact that in addition to all of the common household chores, there were also fields to tend, so many did not make it to their freedom. If they did make it to the end of their services however, they received: food, clothing, and tools to give them a start in life. The plan was for women to go into the world looking for a husband, but many married their employers, those who did not, married quickly since men outnumbered women seven to one. (64).

With western expansion, the frontier held incredible challenges, not the least of which was the difficult travel. These frontier women traveled in extreme temperatures; the heat of the plains and freezing cold in the mountain passes, and withstood volatile storms. Not only were women faced with the hardships of moving westward, but they were still expected to be domestic and maternal, often in charge of cooking, household tasks, and childcare, frequently faced with the rigors of pregnancy too. The ability of these women to survive these physical demands; this lead to a new respect for frontier women by the men in their community. Women were still regarded as domestic and by no means equal despite this new respect. Theodore in 1884 when he left

Women commonly performed all the work that had to be done around the home. They rarely did other jobs and if so, they would work during the night. In the novel, Scout and Jem do not a have a mother so their father is required to help out more than a male usually would: “I know now what he was trying to do but Atticus was only a man. It takes a woman to do that kind of work” (Lee 179). Atticus was doing his best to live up to what a female would do, but it was very hard for him. Women work long and hard hours to keep up with their families needs and still have to work during the night to help provide money for their household. Sometimes women worked up to twenty hour days: “At twelve thirty sharp we have our dinner… one washes and irons here

Those that are not, are sent to the Colony and the life expectancy there is estimated at about three years. For women, being pregnant or having a child is great hope for them. According to the narrator (Offred), if you conceive a child, you will not be sent to the Colony. When a women is not pregnant, her womb is empty and vast.

Westerns connote images of dirt, dust, guns, horses, cowboys and heroes: physically strong, iron-willed, independent, resourceful, quick-witted men. Although the modern Western (the writings of Louise L’Amour, Zane Grey and the numerous films starring John Wayne, Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry) seems to focus on this ideal hero, the genre actually also provides women with strong, self-reliant, active roles. In fact, many texts that precede the typical modern Western had females as the main characters. However, the role of the heroine still differs from that of the hero; the role does not defeminize women but gives them depth as characters. These women still retain their femininity and domesticity, but they also rescue those around them, take care