I think Lucy Larcom's quote was very accurate. People always want to try new things. If the men were able to do it why weren't the girls able to try it out. Lucy says that country girls are very independent. I think this is very true because country girls had to work on the farm. They had to make sure all their work was done or they could get in trouble. Working on a farm is a hard job. They loved getting to work in a mill just for a couple hours. Today people would not like to work in factories or even work. Back then they thought it was great and it was very satisfying for them. They had a lot of fun working in the mills. The men felt as if it was an accomplishment going to work and walking in. The ladies never felt that before.
Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice is about a young homeless girl who doesn’t know anything about herself. This girl is found sleeping in a dung heap by a village and the village’s Midwife decides she’ll give her shelter if she’ll work as her apprentice. From that moment, her new life starts and she finds an identity that fits her and a new name, occupation and a place she belongs to. Alyce’s smartness, empathy and curiousness are a great combination that leads her to become a midwife’s apprentice, and as she works she starts to learn how the world works.
The society she lived in envisioned that only men can do certain jobs. They believed that being a construction worker, firemen, and plumber is only for men because that is what the media portrays. They never portray women out in those professions, yet they envision her at home taking care of her kids. As explained in “Wonder Women’: Towards a Feminization of Heroism in the African Fiction: A Study of the Heroines in Second Class Citizen and God’s Bits of Wood” a woman contributes to communal matters centered around singing, and dancing during ceremonies, hence their education is not considered worthwhile (Agho 3). It was a worldwide belief that women shouldn’t have the same rights and privileges as men then. They believed a man who would partake in such actions was foolish. Clifton writes, “They don’t fit into little petty places, these hips are free hips”. She is using the words “petty places” metaphorically to show how her hips should not be at home or in the kitchen. They don’t want to be in a places that won’t get them anywhere in life. They are free to see what the world has to offer a woman.
Prior to World War II women were expected to be housewives by cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. Women were discouraged to work outside of the home and often judged by the rest of society. Bobbie Ann Mason gives great examples of the duties expected by women of the time period and her grandmother is a perfect model of domesticity. At one point Mason talk about a conversation between her grandmother and mom. Mason’s mom, Christy, decides to go back to work, but her grandmother disapproves and says she should be home taking care of her girls (Mason, 116). Christy on the other hand is an example of the modern woman. A woman willing to go to work outside of the home to help support her family when needed. Christy gets a job at a clothing company. Mason says that many women were leaving the farm and taking work in factories (Mason, 83). During and after World War II many women began to work outside of the home changing the idea of what it meant to be a women and the duties that accompanied.
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.
Back in the 1860 women had it hard at least that I believe. Back then women had to stay home and take care of the children. They also had to clean and cook and do as there husband told them. So you can say women didn’t have a mind of there on because they always had to listen to their husband to make them happy. I believe that exactly how Jane felt in the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Over all the women back then were so much different than what they are and act today. Back then they did everything so sneaky, and cruel. Women today are and can be in control of situations, rather than having to have the men getting things done for them. Women have so much more power and control than what they had back then. Back then they depended on the men so much, to defending the women, to having to help them get what they want. Now in days, we women don’t need men to depend on. We can get help without them, and do things on our own.
Beginning with the Trail of Tears, Johnston rationalizes that, “the forced cession of lands were direct attacks on Cherokee women 's power,” since women were viewed as the ‘bears of life’ and as ‘cultivators of the land’ with their farming (Kindle Locations 1125-1126). Johnston’s claim is women suffered a loss of cultural identity by being separated from their land. Even though Johnston’s focus is on women’s gender roles, she also noted that men suffered a loss of masculinity by not being able to protect their families during the roundup. Both genders suffered along the Trail of Tears since neither could provide for their children, but rather depended on the rations given by soldiers. When the Cherokee arrived in Indian Territory, women returned to their provider roles. The Civil War brought more problems to the people but it also gave the women a chance to regain their roles. Johnston states, “the Civil War reinforced older Cherokee gender roles for the traditional and non-slaveholding women by emphasizing the role of men as warriors,” (Kindle Locations 1578-1579). Then Johnston reasons that perhaps the greatest challenge for women’s roles came with the mandated allotment of Cherokee land. The Cherokee live by communal land and no private ownership; forcing them to accept private and separate land from others just took another piece of their culture away from
Prior to the use of agriculture, life was extremely different for women. The information that historians have obtained is limited, but there are certain aspects of Paleolithic society that have been discovered and point towards a more liberal lifestyle for women. Generally, a woman’s job was to gather food and tend to her children while her male counterpart hunted. These simple divisions allowed both men and women to play significant roles in hunter-gatherer society, which further allowed women to be held in equal if not greater esteem then men. According to Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis and Anthony Elser, authors of World History: Connections to Today, women also held...
The theme of the poem “Woman Work” is that she is a very busy, lonely
Les Femmes Savantes The Learned Ladies is an astounding play. As each new character enters time transforms characters are bedazzled, enchanted and wigged we know we are sharing the stage with royalty. The women’s gowns are extremely detailed with hoop shirts to make them puffy the men are wearing exceptionally detailed waistcoats. This comical drama is set in the living room or “salon” of the family. This plays plot is focused on one major couples chaotic and forbidden love. The characters are joined by blood and lead by the controlling wife, Philamonte (Maya Jackson) and her weak spouse Chrysale (Edward Brown III). Jackson’s voice is directing with a profound tone that would have the capacity to stop anybody dead in their tracks. It is not
In coming to understand what it meant to be a girl I was affected by my era, women’s sports, and the place that I was raised, as much as the independent feminist spirit that my mom was exposed to and possessed. My mother’s mom raised her to believe and accept the traditional female role. My grandmother put emphasis on the women staying home and existing solely as a support system for the man. She found comfort and security knowing that it was the man’s burden to “bring home the bacon.” My mother, however; was influenced by the time and took it upon herself to take care of herself and make her own money. At a young age she along with many other women of her time wanted to rebel against the expected role and thus have a more fulfilling life. Family and children were an important priority for her but she felt strongly that she could do more. Her parents had a wonderful and loving relationship but her father had three massive heart attacks at age 42 and was not suppose to live a year. My mother was one of the oldest of eight children and was well aware of her mother’s very frightening predicament. This aforementioned life experience and her inherent desire to educate herself made her believe that women could do more. My mother did want to marry but wanted to be in the marriage because she wanted to not because she had to stay in an unpleasant situation. She wanted to make it on her own. She did not want a man to control her and most of all to tell her what to do. Her competitive drive for success in the business world was luckily passed on to me and gave me the confidence and perseverance that I need to get through life. My mother taught me that I was a woman, so things may be harder and that I must never e...
Many Americans choose to forget the past brutalities of child labor. Unfortunately, the past does not disappear. Child labor did take place in the U.S. and the Carolina Cotton Mill photograph is a prominent witness. Lewis Wickes Hine is the artist behind this powerful photo, which was taken in the early 1900s (Dimock). Hine’s Carolina Cotton Mill embodies the struggle of child labor through the incorporation of situational information, artistic elements such as lines and space, and cultural values.
...choose between their femininity and the material world. She also criticizes the way women have had to stand on other women’s backs in order to get a little higher in a male dominated society.
...and they are too good to clean the house and take care of the children. Women were thought of as the ones to deal with everything and anything that happened to the house during the day while the men worked. Men in society believed women were only meant for simple things like housework.
Most colonists in the new world had deeply rooted conceptions about women, and how they should conduct themselves, as well as duties they should carry out. They believed that women were weak creatures, not endowed with