It was the year 1909. A five year old brunette haired small girl along with her mother, father, and two siblings, arrived in America. Irna Folt, along with the rest of her family, settled in Nebraska. She resided there until the age of sixteen; she was then ordered out of a magazine of women and shipped to Illinois.
At the age of sixteen, the mail-order bride herself was sent to Illinois to marry my grandfather. By definition today, a mail-order bride is “a woman who lists herself in catalogues and is selected by men for marriage( ). Therefore, she was ordered, like an object, to be delivered to my grandfather. Being a poor female immigrant from Germany during this time period, there weren’t many things that Irna Folt could do to obtain
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a substantial amount of money. Becoming a mail-order bride was one of her only options. Giving up her life in Nebraska to start a new one in Illinois with a man she had never met definitely wasn’t the easiest option, but that’s just the kind of woman Irna was. She would do anything to make her ends meet. Arriving in Illinois to meet Herman Smith and eventually marry him, she settled in Mapleton Illinois, where she eventually became Mrs. Irna Smith. While the majority of people would envision a mail-order bride relationship as not being one of the strongest, Irna and Hermans completely contradicted that. Early on in their thriving marriage, Irna gave birth to a baby boy named Harold. Not long after that came two more boys, Henry and Howard. Throughout the children's childhood, Irna worked as a stay at home mom and a farmers wife. Now when I think of a “farmer's wife” I think of a woman who stays at home and does the cooking, cleaning, and caregiving. That didn’t seem to be the case for Mrs. Irna Smith though. Irna was all about the action when it came to being a “farmer’s wife”. While she would always make sure that her baby’s had a hot meal and lots of love, one could bet that she could also be found in the barn chucking around hay bales exceeding the weight of herself. When my Uncle Jerry, Irna’s grandson, was asked, “What is the first thing you think of when hearing the name Irna Smith”, he responded with, “A small, gentle, white haired woman that out ran a hereford bull at 61 years of age”( ). Just from this I could tell that she wasn’t your average stay at home wife. It was also very uncommon to meet a woman like Irna Smith in that time period.
There was still the underlying notion that women weren’t quite as equal as men. For her to be such a strong, equally dependent woman was incredible in her time. All of her grandchildren seem to look up for her to that.
Interviewing my mother brought on many stories. When I brought up the question, “Do I have a cool relative that was deceased before I was born?”, her eyes instantly lit up. I could practically see the stories flying around in her head. It seemed effortless for her to dig up the archived memories she had put away deep in her brain.
My mother revealed that she, along with her seven siblings, had lived right next door to Irna all throughout their childhood. She recalled that her favorite childhood memory of Irna was when she would let my mom “sneak out” of the house to go next door their house and collect chicken eggs at midnight. She said that her grandma would make them be quiet and tip toe around until they had collected them all. She would then send her back in, telling her not to wake up her mother or that she would be in heaping amounts of trouble. My mom recalled that this was one of her favorite things about her; that she would always make sure her grandchildren had a sense of adventure and excitement(
). When asked, “Why would you say that Irna Smith played a significant role in your childhood?”, my Uncle Jerry responded with, “She proved that age is not the final indicator of a person’s worth. As a farmer’s wife, she had a past and an internal drive that did not fit the gentle woman we called ‘Grandma’”( ). My mother also said, “While Irna was a small, frail, little lady, she could sure put Grandpa in his place with just a look”( ). I can picture this little feisty woman in my head, making sure my great grandpa Herman knew his place. I’ll always look up to her for that. Learning about a woman that I’ve never even met has taught me two things. One, to never judge a person by their past hardships. Though Irna had come from nothing and hadn’t lived the easiest life, she made a strong well loved family. Two, that one should never judge a person’s strength and determination by their physical appearance. Being a petite, all bones, little old woman didn’t mean anything to Irna. If she wanted put her mind to it, she was going to chase around children and chuck hay bales.
Upon entering the Bloomingdales’s Registry, Geller notes,“ Here the domestic woman takes her first faltering steps in wifely authority”. “ Here, soothing maternal wedding consultants school female consumers in the art of purchasing… selecting items to personalize those shires of coupledom their homes” (155). The Bloomingdales registry service seemed to be specially offered and utilized by women only; making it clear that this was an arena in which men have no place; it's a women's world.
She argued and fought for all women to have access and with it freedom to choose when and or if they wanted to be mothers.
During the course of the History, it does not take long to realize that people who fight for they believe in or attempt to change the opinion of others, have a very difficult life. Women during the 1800s were no an exception to this. However, women like Lucy Stone, Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton were willing to make that sacrifice. The sacrifice made by these women led to many rights that women have today.
This is most likely due to the fact that she grew up in a poor household but still managed to make a name for herself through her life experiences. They gave her the knowledge to be able to formulate opinions about the relationships among people, particularly between men and women. She is a strong proponent of the belief that God placed humans on earth with the intention to live in a community equally with others. If both men and women were given the same opportunity to prove themselves then who is to say that they cannot be equal to one another? In her eyes, the soul is genderless and should be given an equal chance to be proven so before women are objectified as the weak and fragile. Women have to depend on men because they do not get the same education and knowledge to be able to support
Mary Wollstonecraft lived with a violet and abusive father which led her to taking care of her mom and sister at an early age. Fanny Blood played an important role in her life to opening her to new ideas of how she actually sees things. Mary opened a school with her sister Eliza and their friend Fanny Blood. Back then for them being a teacher made them earn a living during that time, this made her determined to not rely on men again. Mary felt as if having a job where she gets paid for doing something that back then was considered respected than she wouldn’t need a man to be giving her money. She wasn’t only a women’s right activist but she was a scholar, educator and journalist which led her to writing books about women’s rights.
...s that they weren’t just slaves; they were women, sisters, wives, and daughters, just like the white women (DOC C). The women of this time period reached out to expand ideals by showing men that women were going to be involved in political affairs, and they had a right to do so.
Women, in general, were expected to be able to run their homes, taking care of their spouses and children in whatever form was needed at the time. They were looked down on as uneducated without the ability to understand the more intricate knowledge of politics and the running of businesses of any kind. They had no rights except for what they received from the graciousness of their husbands. Their opinions did not matter, in the long run and they were treated as inferior, expected to stay in their place unquestioning and unassuming.
Women had an extremely difficult time during the 1800s, but after many centuries of hardships and misunderstandings a defining point was boiling down in the next 100 years. An evolution was starting, women were ready for change but only time will let it unfold. Women continued struggling and falling behind men in between the cracks, they have been taught to cook clean and be only homemakers, their lack of education narrowed their vision, they weren't able to see anything else in their peripheral sights. A women's life was set and planned from the day she was born, until her teenage years to seek out marriage, have kids, and teach her daughters to do the very exact same.
Women were perceived as either being a housewife, a nurturer, or a person for company. They did not have the right to vote till later on, work, and if they had an opinion that a male do not agree with, women are considered “wicked”; not savvy, not prudent but wicked to the core. It is unfair, unethical, atrocious, but through it all there was one female who dared to challenge the mind of men and the notion that women can be more than what men perceive them as being. Her name is Margaret Fuller. The goals of Margaret Fuller were precise. Men should realize that women are not an epitome of a statue but human beings, just as men, women can achieve full adulthood and citizenship, but most vitally Margaret aimed to change the assumptions about
Society at this time was dominated by men, making women live extremely challenging and limited lives. The position and status of a woman ultimately depended on that of her husband. She was not given many rights unless it was allowed by her husband. Women had to withstand arranged marriages and there were times they encountered abuse from their spouse. What many people do not see in this society is that women longed for their own empowerment and they wanted to be given the opportunity to create their own success in life without being overshadowed by their husbands. Women were supposed to be seen and not heard. They did not carry a voice in this society. This was a way of life for women "the relations of the sexes were restructured to one of
I, of course, knew my mother as a mother. As I have reached adulthood and become a mother myself, I have also known her as a friend. My mom shared much of herself with me, and I saw sides of my mother as she struggled with her cancer that I had never seen before, especially her strong belief in positive thinking and the importance of quality of life. I was privileged to know so many facets of my mother, but certainly I did not know all. There were parts of her life that I didn’t see, relationships that I didn’t know about. Last night, at the wake, so many stories were told to me about my mom’s strength, courage, humor, kindness, her quietness, her loyalty as a friend. It was so special to hear of these things that my mom said and did, to know some of these other parts of her life. I hope that her friends and family will continue to share these stories with me and with each other so we can continue to know and remember my mom.
...o avoid disbelief from her audience. She was the first woman who dared to tell her experience of enslavement and how she was sexuallyabused.
When I was 7 years old, I was cleaning out my grandmother’s basement with my mother and grandmother, and we found boxes of belongings from my great-grandparent’s house. Among an assortment trinkets and sets of clothes, we had found
Due to the fact, they were deemed as fragile, dense, and incompetent. These attitudes toward women have always been the norm of society and no one ever thought it was wrong. Today, people would have been appalled by how a woman was never acknowledged or how men lower their standards in order to see them eye to eye. Not only did women have to uphold to men’s biased expectations, but were deemed as simple-minded people incapable of anything and that only had to look
The constant topic among the majority of the women in the Bennet household was marriage and future suitors. Mrs. Bennet prides in the hope that someday all her daughters will be married off to wealthy individuals who can even help support the Bennet family and increase their social status: “The business of her life was to get her daughters married...” (9). Mr. Bennet, on the other hand, only cares to see his daughters happy and content with themselves. Although Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s estate is endowed to Mr. Collins, Mr. Benn...