Women Seeing the World through a Different Lens in Three Guineas and The Years

Households were strictly patriarchal in which the man of the house made all the important decisions. Women's jobs at the time were mostly relegated to domestic service and occasional work at harvest time. The jobs were always of low pay, low status, and required little training. In addition to this females were not legally permitted to inherit land or property. This was the bleak life of a woman, with little hope or power, and always the subordinate of men.

Women were expected to do so much but at the same time so little. They had no power to do what they desire because men had all the power to control them. Society had an expectation of how women were supposed to act. For instance, Mary’s father cared for his sons education he wanted them to know how to read, write, and to do sums, as for his daughters he only cared that they knew how to read and sew. That is the basic that women were allowed to learn it was not important for them to know more since all they were going to work for is taking care of children. Here is an example, “…Gender roles within those families the reinforcement of gender ideals such as “helpmeet” and “notable housewife” by religious and civil authorities, and the simple

Certain laws even made it nearly impossible for women to divorce their husbands. This being the case, most women were completely financially dependent upon men.

After marriage, the husband was considered lord and master of the family. But not all the women were meek and submissive. By the 1700's, the woman’s status had rapidly improved in colonial America. A wife and child made as much as a man did. Although women did not have equality with men, their status greatly improved from their status in Europe. A woman’s station in life was determined by the position of their husbands or fathers. The women of the poorest families, compiled to work in the fields, stood at the bottom of the social ladder. One of the surest signs of the accomplishments a family had made, was the exemption of their women from the fields. Before 1740, girls were trained in household crafts and the practical arts of family management. But afterwards they began to study subjects that required reading and studying such subjects as grammer and arithmetic. The women of the upper classes occupied themselves mainly with planning the work of the home and with supervising the domestic servants. Along with these tasks the women also baked, nursed, and sewed. But there were many social restrictions placed on the women of that time. One such restriction was that a wife, in absence of her husband, was not allowed to lodge men even if they were close relatives. For

The source tells young women that they must ‘be content to be inferior to men’ , a statement that corroborates with the contemporary laws of England. Society was deeply patriarchal, with men legally authorised to use physical violence to chastise his wife as she ‘belonged to him. Women who wanted to separate

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 were considered to be the “weaker vessels ,” not as strong physically or mentally as men and less emotionally stable. Legally they could neither vote, hold public office, nor participate in legal matters on their own behalf, and opportunities for them outside the home were frequently limited .

Women did the same amount of work as men they got paid half of men wages because they were viewed as of less value. Since women were a cheaper labor force they were often hired to do men’s work, which often included working in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. Women became a necessity in the workplace, and they soon realized they did matter and that they deserved to be treated equally. Catherine Beecher was a women’s rights activist who fully believed in that sentiment. In “A Treatise on Domestic Economy” Beecher uses a key component of the Declaration of Independence highlighting that “all men are created equal and have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” She uses that point to emphases the parallels between Democracy and Christianity. Beecher continues on to show the importance of subordination in some relationships. She states that women take a subordinate position in public affairs and in domestic life. Beecher informs readers that shouldn’t be the case. Women have greater importance and thus so, in turn, have greater responsibilities (A Treatise on Domestic Economy 240-244). With that realization, women fought for changes. It wasn’t much longer until political changes were legally required. Women fought for equal treatment in society, as a result, the feminist movement emerged. The Industrial Revolution was important in changing the role of women and getting the feminist movement to the point it is at the

Before 1840 women were viewed as something that needed to be taken care of. They could not own property, fathers would not mention their daughters in their wills, women could not be treasurer of their own companies, it was the husband’s responsibility. Only seven vocations were available to them outside of the home in the late 1840’s; widows would receive no share of her husband’s property or his families, and if one did not marry or remarry she had to enter one of the few employments for her or be a charity case for her relatives. When factory jobs became available to women they were quickly taken because it gave women a way to be independent and not a burden to their loved ones, but earn and spend their own money however the wished. For once

A woman was valued if she could have babies, be a good mother and care for her household and her husband. In other words a married woman. A woman’s role was to cater to her husband. It was very rare they worked anywhere but a house.

The common belief was that women belonged in the home, cooking, cleaning, doing housework, and taking care of the children. They were not allowed to vote and when married, could not own property, write a will or keep the money they earned, to name a few restrictions. Politically, women wanted to be equal to men. Domestic Industry suggested that women could work and develop their minds and the Market Revolution allowed women to work in factories, but not much changed because they were paid less, and when they married they were required to do to household chores (Doc 5). Economically, the Lowell System allowed women that were not slaves to work in factories, so they could maintain the idea that they were equal to men (Doc 7). Men fooled women into believing that they were in control of their own lives by allowing them to work if they so desired, however, those positions were in no way permanent for them in

After the Seven Years’ War, even though the British victory helped the expansion of English territories, but British was upset about the cost of the war. The British thought the colonists should share their burden and pay a significant piece of cost because they were the one who directly benefitted from the Seven Years’ War. The rises of taxes and several laws, which intended to raise additional fund for the British government, angered many colonists because they didn't have representation in the Britain’s parliament. The tension between Great Britain and the colonies began raised and finally the American Revolution didn’t radically change the American society, because of the changes of views toward slavery, the inspiration for women to gain equality and independent and the increase of religious toleration, American Revolution was truly revolutionary.

Female sovereignty was uncommon in Renaissance England. The social structure of the family assured the subjugation of woman under man. Daughters remained under the care of their fathers until they were married, at which time they became subject to their husband's authority. Economics ensured the wife's dependence on her husband. Unmarried and widowed women retained far more legal rights than married women, therefore, "for a woman, marriage meant the loss of her legal and economic rights, and therefore a dependence on the (chosen) man" (Motte 29). Even though marriage often meant a loss of legal rights, those daughters who had the good fortune to choose their mates faired better than those whose marriages were arranged.

At the end of the 18th century and during the 19th century, there were many changes to public ideology that affected the way that women perceived their roles in society. Prior to these changes, women had adopted the beliefs of separate “spheres” separating work into public life and their duties as mothers at home1. Women stayed at home to take care of the children and provide a warm, welcoming home for their husbands to take refuge from public life. Women became aware of their lack of legal and political power after the American Revolutionary War ended as they were denied the right to the same freedoms that granted the right to vote to the white, property-owning male population2. Despite granting women more liberty to run businesses, farms,

The year was 1912 in London, England. Women lived at the mercy of their fathers, brothers, husbands and bosses; clearly a patriarchal society. Women’s lives consisted of keeping house and raising children and caring for their families. Those who worked outside of the home were limited to menial labor, earned significantly less than men, and surrendered their earnings to their husbands. Any inheritance of real estate or money a woman may have received was given to her husband and, most often, she had nothing to say about how it was managed or spent. A woman could not vote or run for office, and received little support, should she desire an education other than a ‘finishing school.’ (Clearly,