Module 3: Makers: Women Who Make America

In First Generations Women in Colonial America, Carol Berkin demonstrates the social, political, and economic circumstances that shaped and influenced the lives of women during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the colonies. In exploring these women’s lives and circumstances it becomes clear that geography, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, and other factors less fixed such as war each influenced a woman’s experience differently and to varying degrees. In doing this, Berkin first showcases the life of a specific woman and then transposes that life onto the general historical framework and provides a context in which this woman would have lived. The lives of these women exemplified is also explored and demonstrated through the use of comparison to highlight their different experiences. Moreover, this analysis also seeks to identify the varied sources of these women’s power, albeit for many this power was limited. The analysis is broken up primarily by geography, then by race, and lastly by time and war. While these factors provide the overarching context of analysis, more specific factors are also introduced.

The role of American women has changed significantly from the time the nation was born, to the modern era of the 1950s and 1960s. Many people, "... believed that women's talent and energies ... would be put to the better [use] in the new republic." (Clinton 3) Clearly showing that society has seen the importance of the women's talents and that their skills can be very useful, exploited this and thus, the change of the women's role was inevitable. Society has understood that the roles of women played an important role on all parts of life.

During the time of 1600-1700’s women did not have the same rights as men in other words they did not have any rights at all. Women were treated very poorly with no type of respect. In the book called FIRST Generations WOMEN in COLONIAL AMERICA, by Carol Berkin it talked about various examples of how women were treated. Throughout my essay I will be explaining a few topics that were repeatedly in the book and I found important. Huge topic like gender roles, women population, and men being privilege. It was not easy for women around this time era, because they had to deal with a lot of hurtful things. Women were doing things we would not to today just so they can survive. Even though some women by becoming a mother meant to die soon.

First Generations: Women in Colonial America was written by Carol Berkin in 1996. The book was printed in the United States of America. It was published simultaneously in Canada by HarperCollinsCanadaLtd. It was designed by Abby Kagan. It includes bibliographical references and an index.

The book First Generations: Women in Colonial America written by Carol Berkin shares the power of control of a women’s role in the early part of American society was linked to her race and where she lived. In the book Berkin does a great job of giving examples of the life of the colonists. For example, we know that women white women had more freedom than slaves African Americans especially when it came to marriage. If a African American would want to get married to a white man it would be considered a “criminal offensive” ( Berkin 109).

In The First American Women, Sara M. Evans describes the changing roles of the respective populations of indigenous, white European, and black slave women, from before Columbus’s arrival to the American Revolution, and how the perception of these roles were shaped by the sociocultural context of each group. For example, although indigenous women in North America had significant political and economic power, especially initially, most white European settlers did not recognize this power-- their Eurocentric lens conveying women as inferior-- and thus they instead saw these female political leaders as slaves, basing this conclusion on a comparison to black slaves.

The 150th anniversary of the founding of the Women’s Rights movement was celebrated in 1998, today women benefit from the tremendous positive changes brought about by this movement. These women empowered one another in promoting social change. The National Women’s History Project (NWHP) (1999) stated

The Columbian Exposition was notable for its impressive architecture and large international attendance. Of particular importance was the Women's Pavilion. The first of its kind to have been designed by a female architect, it revealed much about the social plight of women at that time, and the need for further progress in the movement for equal rights. While its existence did not trigger significant changes for the Women's Movement, this pavilion was certainly a promising first step that would set a precedent for women's involvement in later years.

In post-Civil War America, there were two main groups facing discrimination and hardship, despite the rapid rate of the country’s expansion. These two groups were Native Americans and women.

In a hypocritical society, women tend to get the shorter end of the stick. Blindly, society creates an image women have to live up to. Is this the right thing to do? For years women have been put at home being only called for housekeeping at attending to their husbands and kids. Should this come back or should women make America great again?

Even at the very beginning of America, Artists would paint the Native American’s women in such a way to attracted more people to come over and explore this new world, and maybe to find these exotic women in the forest. As more and more people came over, along with more success in starting colonies women were given more power in the new world then back at home. European women, in the beginning, were outnumbered by the males and this was the beginning of uprising of power for women. European women were not the first group of women to gain more power in society. Native American women already had more freedom than European women had originally.

Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War is a work by Drew Gilpin Faust, a renowned American historian and current President of Harvard University. Published in 1996 by the University of North Carolina Press in Chapel Hill, this is one of the several literary works by Faust describing history of the Civil War and of the American South. This nonfiction book includes 257 pages detailing the struggles and labors of the women on the Southern home front during the American Civil War, as well as 67 pages of notes, a bibliographic note, and an index. The book illustrates the hardships of wives and their children during the war and describes many changes they endured throughout the nineteenth century.

American history is primarily concerned with the evaluation of imperative events affiliated with the primordial American society (Kellogg & William 439). It sheds light of the past on the present hence, establishing a significant correlation between the precedent, present, and future. Slavery, the revolutionary war, the colonial period, and the U.S independence are some of the predominant events that characterize the American history.

Paid work for women moved from principally customary female-situated employments to all the more non-conventional and already male-arranged vocations. Ladies ' support in the workforce prompted them to start careers in the field dominated by male in the 20th century. Career yearnings were affected by elements, such as sexual orientation, financial status, race, occupation and instruction level, and parental desires. This paper exhibits how women developed, changed and the challenges they faced in the 20th century in America in the workforce and the advancement of ladies ' careers, improvement and profession goals during the 20th century in United States. Also, gender issues affecting women will be discussed in details during this period and how women played their role in fighting for their rights.

Throughout this paper I will be discussing the role of women in the American society. I will reference the importance of gender and gender inequality. The definition of gender aims to clarify for of all the historical framework of the topic, the role of women in the American society. The paper will lead from the role women were given around World War II and then transition into the role women can now choose in the American society today. Addition to the role of women I will also discuss the differences of how the genders are treated in the same places, for example work place. Men and women are culturally molded when referring to gender in the American society. The gender roles play a lead part into how the model family, education, and liberty are. The reason I chose to write about this topic is due to my strong belief that although I don’t agree with the characteristics society gave to gender, I do believe in gender equality.