What Was The Role Of Women In Colonial America

This is a great source for women's roles. It is a great source because it lists off the many jobs women had when the colonist settled and and after they had been in Maryland for quite sometime. Although the jobs varied house hold to house hold because of social status this is a great representation of what type of jobs women would of had during the 1700s time

The men were involved in clearing the land, plowing, digging ditches, fencing, building, and hunting. (Smith 30) This depicted women in the colonial period as weak and inferior compared to the men. The men handled duties that required strength and especially in outside occupations where this was most important. Women in colonial America were excluded from outside occupations because they were seen as weak and incapable to handle responsibilities beyond housework or the household.

The Native women were also responsible for raising the family. While being married to a trader, the wife was supposed to act as one of their wives from back home. Usually the wife/mother would wake up early in the morning and start the day such by making food or even preparing the furs for them to be sent back to Europe. Most women would also catch the food for the family, while their husbands were occupied with the trades. They were also responsible for raising their daughters and teaching them the general skills of a woman. The sons would also stay with their mothers at home. However, when they became men they would follow their fathers and learn the business.

A woman had a busy domestic life. A woman played the role of wife, mother, teacher and manager. She had to please her husband, bear and raise children, educate her children, and manage all daily household activities. In the home, the woman was the jack of all trades. Part of the role of the female was to take raw goods, and turn them into useful items, such as food, candles, and clothing. Women had to clean, butcher and prepare all game brought home to the family. A woman was a household factory. Many items in the home were created by women. All clothing was made by spinning, weaving and stitching. All cloth was washed by hand without the aid of any machines. Candles were made at home by weaving a wick and pouring hot wax into a mold. A woman had to be educated enough to teach her sons and daughters the skills of life. Women spent the majority of their time performing daily tasks, but still were able to have leisure activities such as painting, embroidery, and charity work. Women had very few legal rights. In the majority of colonies, women had no legal control over their lives. It was the consensus among society that

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)”

Colonial New England women did not benefit from autonomy because they did not have the freedom associated. The husbands of colonial women had full control and their wives were dependent on them financially, occupationally, spiritually and even mentally: the women counted on the men for funds to keep the household fulfilled, took on their husbands religious and spiritual views, and also were told the right and wrong things they should be thinking about. In addition to not being independent in ways aforementioned, women in this era were not legally and politically autonomous which they would not get that right until later on in American history.

Native American women had to follow their husbands, fathers, and brothers to wherever they wanted to go in order to stay close to the bison. Therefore, with all the moving around, they had teepees that could be put up for living and taken down for travelling. Women were in charge of both packing up and putting up these moveable homes. Once they had claimed their new home, women started working the fields. These fields were their responsibility. Their children were also theirs to care for while the men were out on long hunting journeys. On top of all that, Native American women made things to trade, such as jewelry, tools, and pottery.

The period of the antebellum south was among the most burdensome times for African American slaves, especially females. During the early 1800s the lives of enslaved women were extremely demanding. The female slaves were expected to bear children, as well as were required to work just as hard as the male slaves on the plantation. Days were long and laborious for slave mothers, they had to make sure that all the work that needed to be done was completed, and also care for their children. Female slaves’ jobs varied from housework, to field work. Slave mothers knew that giving up on their work was not an option, they had to persevere for their families. Motherhood and work went hand in hand for female slaves, one was not able to do one and not the other.

In the American colonies, it was not uncommon for women to crave to be more than what they were designated to be which was mothers and housekeepers. Women wanted to pursue new beginnings such as teaching, printing, and being merchants. Women were often kept out of the loop in the political spectrum. Abigail Adams emerged as a public figure to promote women becoming independent and equal. Abigail Adams wanted men and women to be equal way before her time.

The impact on women in the revolution was very powerful. The impact was stronger based on who the person sided with. If a woman was sided with the Patriots she had the freedom to choose what she wanted to do.

The diverse cultures in the English colonies allowed for family life as well as a women’s role in each of the colonies to vary. During that period the men greatly outnumbered the women; this allowed for women to have choose marry who they please. Unlike in the Northern Colonies where the sex ratio was more equal, there were fewer men that were not married. Fathers in the north also lived to see this age which allowed them to allowed them to exercise their control on their daughter’s future husband. Also, the South was more flexible with their standards of sexual behavior. So much so, that one third of the women married were already pregnant. This went against the Puritan north that contained frigid ideals of sexual behavior. Despite these differences

The Revolution and aftermath reflect a mostly unchanged the United States, sustained by the actions of the established government and Founding Fathers. Drawing upon a variety of first-person sources, Zinn argues that by extending slight concessions or benefits to the middle class or less privileged, the wealthy managed to maintain power while strengthening a base of support. The centralization of wealth best indicates the unchanging circumstances in the United States. “10 percent of the white population… owned nearly half the wealth of the country,” indicating an incredibly large divide in class. Requirements on a governmental position often included large amounts of property, thus excluding the majority of the population; the absurd requirements

Most documents of the American Revolution have accounts of different men playing key roles in the war, but they were not the only ones who helped America gain its freedom from Britain. In the Revolutionary War, women also played important roles, and they were often active in their homes and the politics as well as in the battlefield. Women were also fundamental to the victorious outcome of the American Revolution.

Women then gained a role within society after the American Revolution. Men came to realize that women were the ones that were educated and held the future in their hands. Women are the ones that teach their children the knowledge of what they need to know in life. Women were considered inferior to men, and did not have many legal rights. The Revolution caused great attention to political matters. It brought to attention that equality and liberty were very important in our

Throughout history, a woman's purpose has mainly been to raise children and manage the household. Although after the Revolution, this role remained mostly the same, during the time of social injustice, women showed their bravery and patriotism. A woman’s role in the American Revolution played a significant part of America winning its independence.