19th Century American Women Essay

In the early 1800s, women were second-class citizens. Women were expected to restrict their area of interest to the home and the family. Women were not encouraged to have a real education or pursue a professional career. Also, women were considered unequal to their husbands and all males legally and socially. The day-to day lives of men and women were quite clearly divided during the late 1800s. Woman in the late 1800s were treated inhumane because of society, class, and their rights.

During the late 1800’s, American women were treated poorly and unequal to men because of their marriage rights, lack of women’s rights, and their rights in the workforce. Women who stayed in intimate relationships were treated poorly and were viewed as diseased and masochistic, according to Carolyn B Ramsey. She also said that the wives’ had to assume ignorance of their husbands’ affairs with the slave women. Ramsey’s article summarizes about the myth that explains how in the late 1800’s state’s intervention in intimate relationships to protect abused women and punish violent men turned into an article of apathy and discrimination that women’s advocates criticize.

There was a very different scene in the household of American families. During the early 1800s, a woman’s life consisted of many obligations and few choices. Women were pretty much controlled by the men in their life, their fathers, brothers, and husbands. The life would consist of finding a husband, reproducing, and then spending the rest of their lives helping the family in the house. In fact, when women became married, legally all of her inheritance and belongings would belong to her husband.

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

The way European women were treated in the nineteenth century is very different than the way women are treated in the twentieth century today. Women in the nineteenth century were thought more of as objects or something to look at instead of people. Men were always superior to women. It is not the same in the United States during twentieth century as it was in Europe during the nineteenth century. Race and sexuality plays a huge role in the superiority of genders. By the end of the nineteenth century there were multiple challenges toward sending gender norms.

The history in the 1800s was really rough then now days because they had the Nez Perce war going on and at the same time, we had problems with woman not being able to vote, and the Immigrants were all looking for jobs. As I said earlier about women not being able to vote was a big step back for woman, not so much for men as they didn’t want women to vote. As the author said in the 1840s, emerging from the broader movement for women's rights”(w.i.t.p.n.). Woman were treated imperfect towards men all because they were a different gender, which is unacceptable back in the 1840s and would be now if it happened because we should all be treated the the same and have the same rights. As it says in the text “In order to earn revenue from their land

Women were so tired of being treated unequal to men and started to look for change. They rose above society to make a point that women deserve an education so they can better themselves. “By 1886, there were 192 women's assemblies, and an additional number of women joined formerly all-male assemblies” (Manning 2013). By the end of the 1800’s, the number of women that were done being mistreated started to rise rapidly. Women continued to take over men’s “jobs” because they were just as capable. It was unusual for women to try to attend colleges, but they gradually started to apply. “Although few persons obtained a college education then, by 1880 women constituted one of every three students enrolled at institutions of higher learning, and many remained single. Of eight thousand female college graduates in 1880, only five thousand were married” (Sklar 1998). Marriage seemed to be one of the main factors that restricted many women into getting a college degree. Women during that time were better off because they did not have to worry about men’s daily opinions of them and how they should act and

During the 19th century, men and women were expected to occupy different spheres. Men lived a public life, working and socializing. While women, however, were tasked with taking care of the home. Women had been tasked with this job since, practically, the beginning of civilization. Women were expected to manage the cooking, cleaning, and children. Not only was it a lot of men who occupied this notion, but also a plethora of women.

Being a woman in a male dominated society quickly became exhausting for those who wanted more out of life than to be a wife or a mother. Although, a domesticated lifestyle for some seems ideal it’s only natural for women to want different things such as success in a work environment or a marriage not occupied by children. Before the 1890s the United States was focused on the issue of slavery and trying to figure out whether it should be abolished or not. For this reason, feminists were silenced and swept up underneath the rug and it wasn't until the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments when women really started pursuing their rights. During this historical time period, women were confused as of why “savages” were give the right to vote while, white,

behind the job. Women of higher class had laborious work to do, although one of the

American Women in the era of 1890 through 1925 had a difficult time getting and having opportunities due to the preconceived notions made of them. Women made drastic changes during this time period, industrialism and the war had a lot to do with it but politically and economically their rights were not yet given to them, Although women were as intelligent as men they did not earn the equal rights as to men.

Contrary to popular belief, ideas on femininity in the eighteenth century were not so much restrictive as in the nineteenth, at least not where sex was concerned. Catherine Clinton, a professor of American history, elaborates in her book, The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century, that it was even accepted for women to have a high sex drive. Clinton also reveals that it was not uncommon to see a pregnant bride (147). At the turn of the century, however, those free ideals morphed into strict guidelines. Society began to value a woman by her sexual purity and dependent behavior. During the nineteenth century, the type of woman who was most valued was a ‘trophy’ wife, much like Marian Forrester in A Lost Lady by Willa

The Women Question is a concept that arose during the nineteenth century to refer to women’s place in society. At the time, women lack of many rights: they were not allowed to have a proper education, and therefore, they were not allowed into college, they could not own property, they had no custody over their children, they could not divorce from their husband, etc. However, the situation was different among the social classes.

In the nineteenth century women lived in an age of inequality because of their gender. Women had very limited choices when it came to their occupational choices, which is why most women stayed home to care for their children take care of the house, keep things clean, and in line and make sure that everything was ready before their husbands came home from their longs days of working.

Families have always played an important part in society, from having a son to carry on the family name, having multiple children to help on the farm, to the parents having someone to take care of them when they are unable to do so in their old age. Majority of families before the 1900’s consisted of the husband working and the wife keeping the house along with raising the children. After the 1900’s though the family dynamic would be changing, the large fluctuation of clerical positions were up for grabs and while it was tradition for women to stay home, they seemed to be made for typing. The single woman were more prominent than ever before taking on what society considered gender specific roles such as, nurses, secretaries, librarians, and teaching. While the majority of society believed as Theodore Roosevelt did “the greatest thing for any woman is to