Women in Colonial 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.

First Generations: Women in Colonial America delivers a broad analysis over American women in the colonial period. It is evident that married women in colonial America were not considered equal to their husbands or to society in general. The rights of American women have come a long way in regards to civil rights. The control a woman in early Colonial America had over her own life was linked to race, religion, and class. Berkin organizes the first chapters according to race and region. Other chapters are organized by African American women, New England, and the middle colonies, Native American Women, and white women in the Chesapeake. Within each chapter, Berkin gives details about one woman from the region. European, Indian, and African women of seventeenth and eighteenth-century America were protectors of their native land, pioneers on the frontier, like-minded immigrants, and courageous slaves. They were also, as most scholars tend to leave out, just as important as men in shaping American culture and history.

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).

Throughout this course, we learned that women’s studies originated as a concern at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). In the past, men had more privileges than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs has divergent female

In the issue “Was the Colonial Period a “Golden Age” for Women in America?” the core difference of whether or not it was a golden age for women is seen in the variation of roles women had in the colonies compared to later generations and whether or not these differences led to them having more opportunities or just more work. In Gloria Main’s article “Gender, Work, and Wages in Colonial New England” she argues that women’s status in the colonies was elevated by the lack of both females and people in general. She focuses on the economic benefits and increased role diversity women had during the colonial period as what increased the colonial “women’s status and condition” (43). While in Mary Beth Norton’s argues against the belief that women had an elevated status in her article “The Myth of the Golden Age, she’s bases this on the fact that women were still required to do what traditional gender roles required them to do as well as the new responsibilities found in the colonies. Norton focused on the fixed status women seemed to have throughout the colonial time period and while they did take on some different and extra roles, their place in society was still primarily “focus[ed] on the household” (48). Both of these women agree that colonial women had a more

According to the article “Rights for woman”, in the 1800 women were treated as subsequent class citizens, and they did not have many rights at all. They were not able to vote and were not encouraged to get an education, or even get a job that they enjoyed (Rights for Women, Par. 1). Women were expected to clean, cook, and find a husband. According to Juliet Levy, Marriage is an agreement that over all comes with substantial financial upbringing. (Levy, 427) As previously stated woman were worth less than men during that time, so the men were basically able to treat them however they wanted. Men were able to send their wives to insane asylums if they did not follow the rules or live up to the expectations of women of that time. According to an article on woman

One of the many downfalls of being a colonial women is not having any legal rights. Women in these times didn’t have the right to vote, nor the right to hold public office. As a married women, whatever belongs to you now belongs your husband. Also, as a married woman your identity was all in your husband,so you were basically owned by him. On the other hand, as an unmarried woman or a widow you gained more rights. Though, if you are unmarried you have to make a living for yourself and you can’t lean on your husband for support. You were allowed to own your own land, which was a big step up from being property of your husband. Also, women were allowed to make wills, sell property and sign contracts. After the

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.

Life in the colonies was different for a female indentured servant and for a native-born female. The law forbade indentured servants to marry until they finished out their contract, which was generally about four to five years of service. Unless she found a man to uplift her contract, she would have to bear a rough beginning (Hawke 63-64). The exposure to malaria left women vulnerable to more deadly diseases, the physical work was harder in the colonies than in England due to the fact that in addition to all of the common household chores, there were also fields to tend, so many did not make it to their freedom. If they did make it to the end of their services however, they received: food, clothing, and tools to give them a start in life. The plan was for women to go into the world looking for a husband, but many married their employers, those who did not, married quickly since men outnumbered women seven to one. (64).

The last group of women in Colonial America is the European women. Their roles were fairly simple. When they got to America, they helped build their first American home, then after that they tended to family and farm matters, such as taking care of kids, cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing clothes, milking cows, feeding chickens, and (like Native American women) made things that could be traded, such as

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

To understand the significant change in the role of the women is to understand its roots. Traditionally, women in colonial America were limited in

Women in the Victorian era had very little to say when it came to marriage. Usually, the parents of the woman would make the choice for her as to whom she would marry based on a man's social status. It was not odd for a 15-year-old girl to wed, unlike in today's society. Parents would usually look for a man who was wealthy enough to help the woman advance in her life, since women were mostly uneducated and only taught to be homemakers and mothers and not work. Women were dealt with as if they were objects, and

During the American colonial period, the presence of patriarchy was undeniable in both the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Chesapeake colony, but little is known about the important roles that women filled. Although there were many shared roles among women in both colonies, their level of importance in the success of their colonies differed. The Massachusetts Bay Colony women were more essential to the success of their colony than the women of the Chesapeake colony, especially with regards to its economy, education, and religion.

Today, women are believed to be equal to men however this was not always the case. During colonial times, women did not have the same roles as women do today; men and women had fixed roles in society. Roles between men and women do not exchange due to strict gender roles. Additionally, married women were not exactly considered as companions instead, as the husband’s property. Although gender roles were a significant issue among women in early America, another issue was the background of these women. Factors such as race, religion, geography/region, and social class were substantial to the extent of control a woman had over her own life. These factors significantly shaped the lives of these women. For instance, white women had differences