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Women and gender in American society in the 19th century
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Women were considered second-class citizens in the early 1800’s because they were expected to restrict their interest to the home and family. Women were not encouraged to have a real education or to pursue a professional career other than a school teacher or a housewife. Women were also considered second-class citizens in the early 1800’s because after their marriage, they no longer had the right to own their own property, keep their wages, or to even sign a contract. During this time period, all women were also denied their right to vote.
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
Women had not only been denied the voting rights and the lack of education before the nineteenth century, they had also been restricted the right to own property. Women who were married were basically owned by their husbands, up until the mid nineteenth century, so they had no regulations with money or their property (Hermes 1). If you were unmarried, however, you were allowed to be owner of property, but when they married the women became property of the man (Talbott 1). As stated previously before, women who were not married were allowed to vote as well as hold property, but a small amount of women did. Marriage was a disadvantage for the women, because they lost most of the rights they had previously. They were not allowed to buy or sell property (Erickson 1).
Women had a role in the forming of our country that many historians overlook. In the years leading to the revolution and after women were political activists. During the war, women took care of the home front. Some poor women followed the army and assisted to the troops. They acted as cooks, laundresses and nurses. There were even soldiers and spies that were women. After the revolution, women advocated for higher education. In the early 1800’s women aided in the increase of factories, and the changing of American society. Women in America were an important and active part of achieving independence and the framing of American life over the years.
In the mid 1800’s, women were not privileged to do what most of the men did. Margaret Hossack, lived in a time where the wives took care of the husband and finished the chores before dawn. Women could not go out without the husband with them, or even spend money without the husband’s consent. They had no equal rights like the men did. Margaret Hossack was close to having equal rights, until she passed on August 5th, 1916. In 1920 women gained equal rights such as the men had. The women had the right to vote, and to walk freely without having
Women spent majority of their day ironing, washing clothes, baking, sewing clothes and raising their children (page 17). Religion also added to women’s lesser status (page 18). Religion was at the core life of Americans, female submission was decreed to be part of God’s order (page 18). Lucretia Mott soon pointed out that many scriptures celebrated female strength and independence (page 18). As a young girl Elizabeth Cady Stanton learned about laws that limited rights of wives and as an adult found ways to reform marriage and divorce laws (page 23). Things were looking up for women, by 1850 female wage workers made up nearly a quarter of the manufacturing labor work force (page 30). Women were still excluded from occupations such as the military, ministry, law, medicine and jobs felt inappropriate for women (page 32). During this antebellum period women were starting to rise up and realize they deserved to have the same rights and privileges men received. This gave women hope that things could change. By the second quarter of the 19th century few positive changes for women pushed Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony, Lucy Stone and others to challenge injustices and reform efforts (page
Women were confronted by many social obligation in the late nineteenth century. Women were living lives that reflected their social rank. They were expected to be economically dependent and legally inferior. No matter what class women were in, men were seen as the ones who go to work and make the money. That way, the women would have to be dependent since they were not able to go to work and make a good salary. No matter what class a woman was in, she could own property in her own name. When a woman became married she " lost control of any property she owned, inherited, or earned" ( Kagan et al. 569). A woman's legal identity was given to her husband.
Women in the nineteenth century lived in a time period where their lives were defined by gender. Men and women were always viewed differently in every aspect of their lives. At the beginning of the century, women were allowed just a few of the legal, social, or political rights that men were allowed to partake in that are now taken for granted. Women were not allowed to vote, sue someone or be sued, they could not vote, could not testify in a court case, they had limited control over personal property after they were married because their husbands took the roles of their fathers who used to have control of their property, and they rarely were granted custody over their children in the rare cases of divorce. Women were
America was supposed to treat everyone equally, although, when the country was founded, women were excluded from the right to vote. It was socially unacceptable. Women were continually taught, from a very young age, that they weren’t mature enough, or mentally capable of making decisions for themselves. This was an injustice to women, and, in order for them to gain justice, they had to fight for their right to vote, a right that should’ve been given to them from the beginning.
Many constraints and limitations were placed on women in the 1700s. Women were not allowed to vote in this period and would not amalgamate a movement for the right to vote until the early 1800s. Yet many women were distraught that they, as citizens, could not contribute their opinion to English society. Women could not be members of the House of Commons and could not change the law to let women be representatives because they could not vote (CP 146). English women were considered to be part of th...
In the beginning of the 1840s and into the 1850s, a rather modest women’s reform was in the process. This group was full of visionaries that began a movement that would soon lobby in change and this movement was the groundwork of equality for women and their right to vote within in the United States. Despite their efforts this movement required a length of seventy years to establish this necessarily equality and the right for all women to vote along the side of men. According to the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION “After male organizers excluded women from attending an anti-slavery conference, American abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott decided to call the “First Woman’s Rights Convention.” Held over several days in
Throughout the late 1800s Americans were workaholics, constantly working in order to make a living for their families at home. Women stayed home and took care of the house as well as the children. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the late 1800s.The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no stranger to the hysteria that took over women in the 19th century. According to Mary Ellen Snodgrass, after her own postpartum emotional collapse and treatment in 1887, Gilman knew about the situation women were experiencing (“Gilman”). All the pressure of working and raising children affected all Americans, but society blamed the nervous depression mainly on women because they were women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her own life experience and illness that she went through and how women were treated during the 1800’s.
In the 1800s women’s rights were non-existent, their only reason for being was to, mother a child, help out with the church, and take care of the home life. Women were viewed as a piece of their husband’s property, they had no say in the financial decisions, voting, and they were not allowed to own property (Women In The 1800’S). Even if the husband were to pass away all of his property would go to the next male on his side of the
In the 1800s divorces were frowned upon and everything was given to the males. In the Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton enumerated specific complaints concerning the oppressed status of women in American society: their inability to vote; exclusion from higher education and professional careers; subordination to male authority in both church and state; and legal victimization in terms of wages, property rights, and divorce (Driscoll 1).... ... middle of paper ... ...
Women’s right is the fight for the idea that women should have equal rights with men. Throughout history, the right to property is what has engaged in this process of everyone having equality. Women’s suffrage has been a very big part of gaining the right to vote, the right to work for equal pay and reproductive rights. However, the revolution and its principles of liberty and equality had little impact on how everyone saw women, and their status was insignificant. During that time of revolution and later jumping forward to the 1830s, women began to take part of the antislavery movement that was drawing close and closer to home. Although, the struggle for women’s liberation in the United States was real, and these women were not going to go
Women have been humiliated in so many ways such as making their own decisions and the same equal rights as men. Women had no authority whatsoever within their family or outside of it. Their role was just to maintain the house, to take care of the children and to cook for the family. Some of them were very ‘fortunate’ to have semi suitable occupations, such as teachers, nurses, jewelry makers or office assistants. Even though their wages were very limited, they wanted to work to show somewhat their independency. In the 1800’s, women had a very rough time in society. They were not allowed to vote or voice their opinion. They had to stand by and watch men decide on their own personal rights. Men didn’t believe that women were capable of making complicated decisions and that it should be left up to the men to decide on everything. Men didn’t believe that women were intelligent enough to do anything. They thought that women were meant to be at home education their sons to be more knowledge and their daughters to be housewives. Their lives were very rough since they had no rights. It was hard for women to have any type of education since no schools would accept women students. They weren’t allowe...