In current political issues, the presence of inequality between men and women causes tension throughout the general public. Although it may appear as a recent debate, the movement towards feminine equality began before the twentieth century. The establishment of communities on the American frontier was enriched by the presence and actions of women. However, intricate careers were scarce for female employees. This was due to the east coast stereotypes about women following the wagon trains out west. Because the new terrain also lacked development, the inability to hold high-paying positions in law firms or hospitals presented difficulty to establish permanent settlements. In other words, these women met harsh struggles and criticism face to …show more content…
In the collection More Than Petticoats by Gayle C. Shirley, one of the accounts states that during the frontier years and earlier, women “were expected to settle comfortably into the roles of wife and mother” (86). For the most part, these roles can not be clearly defined to specific tasks; although, there are definite hobbies and occupations that were deemed unacceptable in society. Posing an opinion in public, for example, was witheld from the women. Other sources including June Sochen’s “Frontier Women: A Model for All Women?” agree that most cultures place a woman’s importance as the mother of the household (36). This suggests that the pattern of female inequality stretches across the globe and that the potential equal rights movement could have started in the American frontier. Equally important, certain characteristics of a woman in …show more content…
These select females were not exactly attempting to create the term feminism; rather, they were trying to achieve their goals for themselves and their families. For example, Mother Amadeus of Montana, set aside her illnesses and other physical limitations in order to put every last effort into her daily work (Shirley 55). This acknowledges that the world does not wait for a person to overcome their personal pain in the pursuance of moving forward. Mother Amadeus did not dwell on her own complications because she was more focused on achieving her dream of teaching to younger children. Likewise, one record states that a female bronc rider returned to competition just months after experiencing extreme injuries (Shirley 114). This demonstrates that the passion to ride a wild horse for fun posed more significance than the fear of getting hurt. Some women even accomplished their daily work on the farm while leaving time to partake in their personal hobbies, such as art (Shirley 86). This proves that these women worked hard to overcome the small time frame that was allocated for free time on the frontier. Moreover, one son of a frontier comic strip illustrator recalled that his mother never used her gifts to achieve fame, but to help those in need (Shirley 97). This signifies that the importance of hard work was not to reach high social standards or reputability;
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)
Even before this event, the struggles of women in society were surfacing in the media. Eliza Farnham, a married woman in Illinois during the late 1830s, expressed the differing views between men and women on the proper relations between a husband and wife. While Farnham viewed a wife as being “a pleasant face to meet you when you go home from the field, or a soft voice to speak kind words when you are sick, or a gentle friend to converse with you in your leisure hours”, a recently married farmer contended that a wife was useful “to do [a man’s] cookin and such like, ‘kase it’s easier for them than it is for [men]” (Farnham, 243).
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.
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.
For over centuries, society had established the societal standard of the women. This societal standard pictured the ideal American woman running the household and taking care of the children while her husband provided for the family. However, between 1770 and 1860, this societal standard began to tear at the seams. Throughout this time period, women began to search for a new ideal of American womanhood by questioning and breaking the barriers society had placed upon them.
To understand the significant changes within the role of women, it’s important to look at the position women held in society prior to World War II. In a famously quoted ruling by the United States Supreme Court in a case denying a woman’s right to practice law, the following excerpt penned by the Honorable Joseph P. Bradley in 1873 sums up how women were perceived during that period of time by their male counterparts. Bradley declared, "The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother -- this is the law of the Creator" . While many women may agree that the role of wife and mother is a noble one, most would certainly not agree this position would define their destiny.
As students sit in class and look up at their female professors they do not think of all of the women who sacrificed themselves for the opportunity for other women to be seen as societal equals. Each of us should place ourselves in the birthplace of the women’s movement that Constance Backhouse depicted in her book Petticoats and Prejudice. After reading this book all man ought to be ashamed of being part of the heritage that contributed to the hardships that were forced upon women of the 19th century. The misfortunes that Zoé Mignault, Amelia Hogle, Mary Hunt, Ellen Rogers, Emily Howard Stowe, Euphemia Rabbitt, and Clara Brett had throughout their lives are something that nobody would want to experience themselves.
When the United States was taking shape a nation, many events took place, and they played an important role in defining the country in different ways. One theme that comes up is the role women played in the development of America as a nation. For long, the society has been focusing on the role of men from different races and ethnicities in the development of America. The women of the Great Plains are among those that the American society had failed to recognize on many fronts, including their lives before America started to become a great nation in the mid-nineteenth century. These women lived between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains horizontally and between Arctic Circle and Mexico vertically, where the land is
Throughout most of recorded history, women generally have endured significantly fewer career opportunities and choices, and even less legal rights, than that of men. The “weaker sex,” women were long considered naturally, both physically and mentally, inferior to men. Delicate and feeble minded, women were unable to perform any task that required muscular or intellectual development. This idea of women being inherently weaker, coupled with their natural biological role of the child bearer, resulted in the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home.” Therefore, wife and mother were the major social roles and significant professions assigned to women, and were the ways in which women identified and expressed themselves. However, women’s history has also seen many instances in which these ideas were challenged-where women (and some men) fought for, and to a large degree accomplished, a re-evaluation of traditional views of their role in society.
Women in the Wild West were resourceful women that dealt with the harsh conditions of their time, the lawlessness, and living with very few amenities. Women of the Wild West was not like many movies and book portray them to be; they were not helpless, weak, or incapable to think for themselves. On the contrary they were women that raised children, establishd churches and schools, warded off Indian attacks, and many also participated in the voting rights for women. Women of the West was main contributors to their families and communities and this essay will discuss two of them, Eliza Snow and Calamity Jane.
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
For centuries, all across the globe, the traditional woman has been soft-spoken, modest, religious, and obedient to their husbands. The women would wake up, clean the house, cook and cater to their family. For many women, husbands would beat and abuse them, but it was the rural life, which was normal to them, comfortable even. The 1920s hit in the Unites States of America, leading to multiple victories that would carve a new path. Little did these women know, that their actions would influence the way that the female lives
Before the turn of the century, women were subordinate to men often oppressed not allowing them to explore new ventures or be independent. According to Julie Peakman, during the early nineteenth century, “All (woman) relay the difficulties in pursuing an independent role of life”. They were required to stay home and take care of children or keep the house in order. However, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, woman began experiencing new found civil liberties and freedom. Susanne Weil comments, “In the nineteenth century as the nation became increasingly industrialized… women's roles as well as the nature of work itself were being radically transformed.” Woman now were no longer required to take care of children but could pursue careers themselves and no longer be dependant on a man. This change was a sudden shock to many men during this time. Not only were they once the only source of income, but now women had much more a voice in the household thus leading many men to oppose these changes. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of the progressive era, even the president opposed these changes, “... former president Grover Cleveland wrote that allowing women to vote would upset the “natural equilibrium” between men and women and cause chaos.” This clearly show how change in women’s statutes not only affected the common men, but also the president of the United States. Many of these men’s objections were transformed and broadcasted into their pieces of literature thus illustrating how many of the men at their time felt as
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.
The late nineteenth century was a critical time in reshaping the rights of women. Commonly this era is considered to be the beginning of what is know to western feminists as “first-wave feminism.” First-wave feminism predominately fought for legal rights such as suffrage, and property rights. A major hallmark of first-wave feminism is the concept of the “New Woman.” The phrase New Woman described educated, independent, career oriented women who stood in response to the idea of the “Cult of Domesticity,” that is the idea that women are meant to be domestic and submissive (Stevens 27). Though the concept of the New Woman was empowering to many, some women did not want to give up their roles as housewives. These women felt there was a great dignity in the lifestyle of the housewife, and that raising children was not a job to scoff at. Mary Freeman's short story “The Revolt of 'Mother',” tells the story of such a domestic woman, Sarah, who has no interest in leaving her position as mother, but still wishes to have her voice heard in the private sphere of her home. Freeman's “Revolt of Mother,” illustrates an alternative means of resistance for women who rejected the oppression of patriarchy without a withdrawal from the domestic lifestyle.