Women in Colonial Times

In Colonial America, women were considered the weaker sex. They were always treated “less than” their husbands. Men sometimes dominated the lives of women. They were expected to obey their husbands orders without question or argument. They had pretty much no rights. In fact, unmarried or widowed women had more rights than married women! Married women could not make a will without formal consent of her husband, could not buy or sell property, could not make a contract, could not vote, and could not sue, or be sued. Unmarried/widowed women could do all of these things, plus more. Widowed women even received ⅓ interest of their deceased husbands property. Married women were like slaves.
Women’s jobs was very demanding and difficult. They were expected to help the men with a variety of hard labor tasks. They had traditional jobs such as running the house, raising children, cooking, making clothes, etc. Women usually cooked over a fire or brick oven. The housework was especially hard, because there was always dust from the open fires. They had to spin, weave, and make make clothes. Women were usually the only doctors around. They usually tried to heal the sick with herbs and other plants.
It was probably very difficult for women to be in their homes mostly all day, because of the poor house conditions. It was drafty, it had no running water, no inside toilet, etc. There was no antibiotics or any other medicine back then, so many people died even from the most minor cut. The first antibiotic wasn’t even discovered until 1888.
Women were the primary educators. When they weren’t doing chores, women usually taught teen girls to read, write, Arithmetic, and History, if they were lucky. They boys and men were usually out working while the girls had lessons. Wealthy women in the Colonies were usually wifes of lawyers, judges, congress, mayors, etc. Wealthy women usually had elaborate clothes made of velvet, satin and silk, while middle and lower class women usually had to sew and weave their clothes.
It is probably safe to say that wealthy women had simple jobs compared to other women. The main roles of wealthy women were usually to plan social events, parties, etc. They had to do little to no manual labor because they usually owned slaves/indintured servants. They usually had tutors to teach their children to read and write.
In Colonial times, mostly all women were expected to marry someone chosen by her parents.