The Changing Place of Women DBQ

The Industrial Revolution was a period of industrial and urban growth in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. This period marked a transition from an agrarian based system, to one focused exclusively on economics and commodity production. Industrialization introduced innovative technology and the formation of factories would ultimately change how goods and materials were made. During the American Revolution, women were responsible for in-home production that aided the war effort, using their production as a means to contribute publically. As America transitioned from this period into the period of the Industrial Revolution, these widened roles became more restrictive, women were no longer producers, they were consumers, and it was not a common practice for women to work outside of the home. This generated an opportunity for women to challenge newly forming gender ideals in which women’s societal expectations were constructed according to the masculine majority and falling outside of these expectations was deemed inappropriate. The Industrial Revolution prompted an enlightenment period in which gender ideals suggested that men were intellectually superior to women and this perceived superiority helped to influence distinct public and private spheres of influence for both men and women and presented the idea that women had a specific set of virtues to uphold according to the “cult of true womanhood.”

When manufacturing plants started booming, they found business. Women became valuable factory workers because of their ability to complete complex tasks in the work place. Also, having willingness to labor for an inexpensive pay rate because they were in need boosted their chances of employment. In fact, employers needed them and were happy at the fact that they weren 't too costly to hire. In the document, Morals of Manufactures (1837), it states, “Many of the girls are in the factories because they have too much pride for domestic service.”(Chapter 9 Page 223) As stated before, women were looked over as far being capable of anything else other than a house wife and or mother. Some women worked for pay, as well as to prove that they were more than what society labeled them. This allowed women to make their own money and not be forced to completely live off their husbands. Also, this gave women a freedom and sensibility to become more independent.

The Second Great Awakening and opportunities for education greatly altered women’s role in the household. They were given more freedom and power as a mother. In addition, women were able to work in jobs normally dominated by men. They were not confined in the house but were able to make contributions in society to gain their own income. Women also became the leaders of reform during this time period. They headed movements against slavery, mistreatment of the mentally ill, and restriction of women’s rights. With all these changes, women’s lives slowly evolved. All these radical ideas soon became the norm for

The Second Industrial Revolution had a major impact on women's lives. After being controlled fro so long women were experiencing what it was like to live an independent life. In the late nineteenth century women were participating in a variety of experiences, such as social disabilities confronted by all women, new employment patterns, and working class poverty and prostitution. These experiences will show how women were perceived in the Second Industrial Revolution.

Women in 1800s portrayed a reproductive machine. That role holds an importance considering the next child might be a male and also be the future generation society as a doctor, lawyer, or governor, something that contains a meaning; however, a woman's field was in the home. In the first half of the 19th century, the Market revolution was not necessarily labeled as an event but characterized as a process. The Market revolution helped shape the lives and the nation of these citizens. Many Americans produced materials primarily for themselves on their independent farms. These products provided, marketed purchase to others. Women continue to be labeled as social, economic, and political subordinates from before 1800 following 1850, and among these women, they were most affected by the revolution.

The Market Revolution can be described as an early manifestation of capitalism, an era associated with a new sense of individual rights, equality, and freedom. The Market Revolution took place in the early 19th century, and it drastically changed not only the market and commerce of Americans but their personal lives as well. Before the Market Revolution America hadn’t seen any new life changing innovations, most of their goods, such as clothing and farming tools, were still being made from home, and trade was limited by poor roads and little means of transportation. In addition, the poor road system meant that there was little interaction and movement between each state. It wasn’t till the creation of new ways of communicating, steamboats, and the building of canals, railroads, and turnpikes that prompted American expansion. As a result, the United States began to see a movement of settlements westward and the rise cities. The Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812, led to the cutoff of British imports and the need to establish the first large –scale factories; the rise of factories then led to new employment and a boom in domestic manufacturing (Foner 331). The changes led by the advances in the society of the Market Revolution evidently gave women the opportunity to gain a level of equality in both domestic and work environments, it also gave Americans the

Before the generation, American women as improved their educational standing , to secure additional legal rights, and acquired greater access the manufactured by the 1800’s. Women had participated outstanding in the religious revivals known the second Great Awakening and the swept across the floor. The result of the religion , american women mostly north became involved in numerous reforms efforts, including temperance, the abolition of slavery, the colonization of former slaves, and important of poisons. But majority of american women still led daily lives that to focused on their family, household, gardens and crops. The night before the war , most women in the U.S. lived in rural areas and regularly performed exhausting, physical work and around the homes.

However, not only did women work in the fields they also produce goods, and services; such as clothing, personal hygiene items, and food to be sold in order to build -up their coffer’s through that of their overabundance of supplies. This impact took place during the 1700’s and beyond, when women from all aspects of life filled these domestic jobs while working for very little pay; getting absolutely nothing at all for their work. During the 1800’s, however, this all changed for women and soon these women we’re categorized as being unskilled workers this causing tremendous consequences for these women; especially when the men return for war and once again took on the gender roles to which women were now a custom too.

Woman along with the children were affected while working during the industrial revolution. During 1834 and 1836 Harriet Martineau, a British feminist and abolitionist, visited America and enthusiastically embraced the social implications of the Industrial Revolution, (DTA, 223). Martineau compared the lifestyle of women to slaves and said the United States contradicted the principles of the Declaration of Independence. She did believe though with some progress that it could become New England’s new industrial order. One of the Mill factories Martineau visited, Waltham Mill, was a prime example of the scheduled lifestyle of women mill workers. Women Mill workers of all ages worked at Waltham Mill, which I compared to a boarding school because of their strict schedules. The ladies had a time to wake up, to be at work, to eat, and to go to school. A lot of women did not mind the harsh conditions they lived and worked in because they fought for their equality of rights for a long time now.

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.

In the early nineteenth century time period there was a major reform in the United States. The Antebellum Reform is the period before the civil war and after the war of 1812. Preachers and believers saw society and the environment of the country capable of improving conditions. They saw that the society was able to perfect and strive to be more like God. The Second Great Awakening played a large role in the development of the reformist impulse. The Awakening pressured the concept of personal responsibility of a person to the sins of neighbors. Seeking perfection and living righteousness, also redeeming sinners was widely spread. The reform was encountered with a network of church affiliated reform organizations. The reform impulse was not only major in the United States, but Europeans also had reform efforts. There were different types of reform movements during the nineteenth century in the United States. Overtime groups and were separated. There were many women who worked in the reform movement. However, women had a great impact in

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

Firstly, the Industrial Revolution affected women in the working and poor classes by allowing them to work in factories and mills. Before this time, women in the working class were primarily working unpaid jobs such as cooking and cleaning around the house for the family, but the industrial revolution gave women the chance to be paid and work outside of their homes (Frader, “Effects of the Industrial Revolution”, BCP). Most women obtained jobs in the textile industry. According to Dr. Christopher Wells, a professor of U.S cultural history at Macalester University, explained that ,“The town of Lowell, MA, for example, was incorporated in 1826 and soon hosted over 30 different mills.” (Wells, “Industrializing Women”, Teaching History). In the Lowell Mills, women expected to work at least thirteen hour days of constant and tiring labor in which women accounted for three-fourths of the workers in the mill. (Wells, “Industrializing Women”, Teaching History). Women factory workers typically made around $3.00 to $3.50 per week which was much greater than most women could earn in their hometowns (Dublin, “Women and

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.

During the long nineteenth century, political revolutions, industrialization, and European imperialism resulted in dramatic changes in the role of women in Western Europe and Eastern Asia. As industrialization spread in Western Europe, women were no longer able to fulfill their dual role as a mother and a worker. After the introduction of industrialization, laborious tasks were moved from the household to factories and women were forced to choose either the life of a mother or the life of a worker. Women who chose to leave their households were subjected to harsh conditions, low wages, and long hours. The majority of married and middle-class women were confined to the home, and deprived of an education and civil rights. Unlike the