As many women took on a domestic role during this era, by the turn of the century women were certainly not strangers to the work force. As the developing American nation altered the lives of its citizens, both men and women found themselves struggling economically and migrated into cities to find work in the emerging industrialized labor movement . Ho...
“The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston is a publication that demonstrates women’s roles during the antebellum period. Women during this period began to embrace housework and believed their responsibilities were to maintain the home, and produce contented and healthy families. As things progressed, housework no longer held monetary value, and as a result, womanhood slowly shifted from worker to nurturer. The roles that women once held in the household were slowly diminishing as the economy became more industrialized. Despite the discomfort of men, when women realized they could find decent employment, still maintain their household and have extra income, women began exploring their option.
French, Katherine L., and Allyson M. Poska. Women and Gender in the Western past. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.
Throughout nineteenth century Europe and leading into the twentieth century, the division and integration of equal rights and liberties towards both genders was a predominant issue. From the 1860’s and beyond, male suffrage was expanding due to working-class activism and liberal constitutionalism, however women were not included in any political participation and were rejected from many opportunities in the workforce. They were considered second-class citizens, expected to restrict their sphere of influence to the home and family, and therefore not encouraged to pursue a beneficial education or career. Because they were seen as such weak entities, the only way they were able to advocate their interests and dissatisfaction was through their own independent organizations and forms of direct action. With hard work towards improving women’s involvement in the workforce and towards political emancipation, womanhood gradually became redefined. When looking back on these crucial times in history, it is necessary to view how various images and ideas of females represented such integral symbols in modern Europe that influenced the pivotal changes they succeeded in putting forward. Earlier photos show women in society as solely conforming to what society wants them to be, however later this changes and images of women go against what is seen as appropriate and advertise the efforts made towards gender equality.
Beginning in the early 1800’s men, their wives and children made the voyage across to America, yet women might as well have been viewed as not a wife but another piece of land, just in a new country considering women’s duties were the same in both the east and the west. In both locations men and women were believed to be apart of “different spheres.” Barbara Welter elaborates on these spheres through her essay “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860” (1966). Welters describes the male sphere was focused around the world of the work force, ...
While historians and scholars use a variety of lenses to analyze American history, the examination of the role that gender has played in society provides a view of history broader than the typical patriarchal tunnel vision taught in most history classes today. Men’s roles in society have been molded and crafted by the changes occurring throughout these societies, but women’s roles both in the home and in the workforce have arguably undergone many more radical transformations since the inception of the United States. Specifically, the transformation of womanhood in the first half of the nineteenth century, beginning with the market revolution, permanently changed how women are viewed in society, by both men and other women, and how women relate
James, Edward, Janet James, and Paul Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Volume III: P-Z. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print.
A huge part of the economical grow of the United States was the wealth being produced by the factories in New England. Women up until the factories started booming were seen as the child-bearer and were not allowed to have any kind of career. They were valued for factories because of their ability to do intricate work requiring dexterity and nimble fingers. "The Industrial Revolution has on the whole proved beneficial to women. It has resulted in greater leisure for women in the home and has relieved them from the drudgery and monotony that characterized much of the hand labour previously performed in connection with industrial work under the domestic system. For the woman workers outside the home it has resulted in better conditions, a greater variety of openings and an improved status" (Ivy Pinchbeck, Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850, pg.4) The women could now make their own money and they didn’t have to live completely off their husbands. This allowed women to start thinking more freely and become a little bit more independent.
In this essay, we will examine three documents to prove that they do indeed support the assertion that women’s social status in the United States during the antebellum period and beyond was as “domestic household slaves” to their husband and children. The documents we will be examining are: “From Antislavery to Women 's Rights” by Angelina Grimke in 1838, “A Fourierist Newspaper Criticizes the Nuclear Family” in 1844, and “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” by Margaret Fuller in 1845.
Welter, Barabara. (Summer, 1966). The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860. American Quarterly. Vol. 18, No. 2, Part 1, pp. 151-174
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, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America- Feminist Void?” Loyno. Department of History, 1988. Web. 11 May. 2014.
Cott, Nancy F. The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.
To understand the significant change in the role of the women is to understand its roots. Traditionally, women in colonial America were limited in the roles they played or limited in their "spheres of influence." Women were once seen as only needed to bear children and care for them. Their only role was domestic; related to activities such as cooking and cleaning. A married woman shared her husband's status and often lived with his family. The woman was denied any legal control over her possession, land, money, or even her own children after a divorce. In a sense, she was the possession of her husband after marriage. She "... was a legal incompetent, as children, idiots, and criminals were under English law. As feme covert she was stripped of all property; once married, the clothes on her back, her personal possessions--whether valuable, mutable or merely sentimental--and even her body became her husband's, to direct, to manage, and to use. Once a child was born to the couple, her land, too, came under his control." (Berkin 14)