Women had different rights than men. Back in the 1800s women couldn’t decide for themselves unlike our society today. In the passage “Breaking Tradition” by Kathleen Ernst explains how the Civil War had a big impact on women’s roles in society. Kathleen Ernst uses Logos, Pathos and Ethos to describe how women felt about not being able to make decisions for themselves and always being controlled by other people.
In the passage it states “Before the Civil War, laws and traditions restricted women’s choices.” every women was being treated differently because of their gender. Kathleen Ernst also states “Women could not vote or sign contracts. And under the law, husbands usually controlled their wives property, if they owned any, and wages, if they earned any. Women were expected to keep busy at home and church and to avoid heavy labor, business, and politics.”summarizes how women husbands had controlled over everything they had and did. Some women did not agree on these requirements. “Free black and Native American women struggled to maintain their cultural identity in a society that seemed to have little place for them.” explains how women wanted to work and find a place to live but could
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not because of their gender. Another example is “And in the South, slave women dreamed of the freedom to make their own choices and determine their own destiny.” all women wanted to make a living. All of these examples explain how the Civil War evolved over a period of time of changing women’s roles in life. When the 1800s came around many women began getting jobs or pursuing careers for themselves.
“Those women who wanted or needed to pursue “respectable”careers became schoolteachers, seamstresses, or hat makers, or gave private lessons in art, music, or French.” some even became cooks but women were satisfied by what they wanted to do as long as they did not have someone else controlling their life.”In 1860, 300,000 women were working in shoe factories and printing plants.” stated Kathleen Ernst explains that after the 1800s women begin to do things on their own and they got to begin their dreams. “Women wrote 12 of the 27 best selling novels published between 1850 and 1860.” most women who did not like the way things were before the civil war made a living and started their
careers. In addition, the Civil War had a big impact on women and their roles in life. Nowadays women are their person and they make decisions for themselves. Also men do not decide what the women can and cannot do. Most women now are either being mothers or pursuing a dream they have always dreamed of.
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
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.
It allowed married women the right to retain property they owned before marriage and wages they earned outside the family home. (pp.247) Their rights continued to progress when both white and black women were given the right to vote, although it still didn’t have the impact that was expected. Not only were women given more rights, but they also started attending schools and seeking employment. This was a big step for women, but men interpreted this as a threat to the balance of power. Weitz stated that after new “scientific” ideas were combined with old definitions of women’s bodies, due to their ill and fragile bodies, “white middle-class women were unable to sustain the responsibilities of political power or the burdens of education or employment.”
Women had a role in the forming of our country that many historians overlook. In the years leading to the revolution and after women were political activists. During the war, women took care of the home front. Some poor women followed the army and assisted to the troops. They acted as cooks, laundresses and nurses. There were even soldiers and spies that were women. After the revolution, women advocated for higher education. In the early 1800’s women aided in the increase of factories, and the changing of American society. Women in America were an important and active part of achieving independence and the framing of American life over the years.
Usually, “A working woman was an object of pity or scorn in Victorian America.” (USAHEC.org). Women usually devote their lives to caring for their husband and children; creating a nice, clean home (The History Channel Website, 2013). If they did nurse, it was only in their homes and for their family members (Egenes, 2009). The Civil War was the first time that women really played an important role in a war effort (The History Channel Website, 2013).
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood. The roles that men and women were expected to live up to would be called oppressive and offensive by today’s standards, but it was a very different world than the one we have become accustomed to in our time. Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
American women started entering the work force in the early 1900s. “Women started to purse a college education, worked for fair labor laws, and increased political freedoms” (Women in the 1920s). At this point some women were competing for the same jobs that men had. Native American women were much different than American women. They were different because of culture, tradition, and their duties. "A people is not defeated until the hearts of its women are on the ground" (The Shift). Some American women liked to stay home and had a large family to help her around the home. During times of war some American women became the head of the household. "Women made up about 18-20% of the work force" (Women’s International Center). Women began to become more accustomed to working during this time. The majority of their jobs were in factories and mills. Some women and children worked for ten to twelve hours a day. White women didn 't come in contact with Native women very often. They lived separate lives both geographically and culturally. “During the early 1900s, women and women 's organizations not only worked to gain the right to vote, they also worked for broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms” (Women’s Suffrage). Women continue to fight for rights that give them equal opportunities even
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.
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)
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 rights became an issue as men were seen as the sole providers of families. In many instances, women and children had no say so as to what goes on inside the home. Whatever the father believed is what their children and wife’s had to conform to. Many women such as Lucy Knox and Abigail Adams began challenging their husbands for respect and partial control in their union and homes. Despite gains of rights and divorce, republican society still defined women’s roles exclusively in terms of mother, wife, and homemaker. Any other roles pursued would seem unnatural and
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
Women in the 1800’s were never encouraged to obtain a real education or pursue a professional career. The idealized middle-class white marriage emphasized the valuable task that mothers performed in educating their children to be productive and moral citizens; therefore women's education became increasingly important.(“Women,”2000). A marked improvement in the education of girls occurred around the end of the eighteenth century. In the 1800s, as more girls attended primary school, female literacy rose, but secondary education existed mostly for the daughters of wealthy white men and reinforced upper-class women's domestic talents. Inspired by their education, some middle-class women took their mission outside the home. As the first quarter of the century gave way to the second, women expanded their reform efforts to include education reform, the abolition of slavery, and, rights for themselves. Both as reformers and as teachers, women played a significant role in education. Not to mention, all northern states provided some public education for blacks in 1860. Although some rural areas, especially in the southern portions of the Midwest, refused to fund schools for blacks and maintained segregated schools for whites. By the 1850’s most teachers—especially in white schools—were women, in part because women could be paid less than men. Female education still emphasized moral and religious education, domestic science, and teacher training. Even though the educational opportunities for women dramatically expanded, universities often trained women for homemaking, thus dissuading them from higher intellectual pursuits. In addition, the role women played in education- men were still in control of how the system went about. Colleges required female students to wash male students' clothing, clean their rooms, and serve them at meals. (“Women’s Movement,”2016). On the bright side, women were
During the 19th centuary a women’s role in society was to function only in household. Meanwhile male played a dominant role in provding for the family finacally. Women during this time period didn’t have rights to own property much of it was their husbands. Women could not work outside their household duties. Jansson (2012) noted “ Women were virtually excluded from medicine, law, and clergy” (p.111). Although women couldn’t inquire these proffesions, after the Civil War they were motivted to become school
Women have always been essential to society. Fifty to seventy years ago, a woman was no more than a house wife, caregiver, and at their husbands beck and call. Women had no personal opinion, no voice, and no freedom. They were suppressed by the sociable beliefs of man. A woman’s respectable place was always behind the masculine frame of a man. In the past a woman’s inferiority was not voluntary but instilled by elder women, and/or force. Many, would like to know why? Why was a woman such a threat to a man? Was it just about man’s ability to control, and overpower a woman, or was there a serious threat? Well, everyone has there own opinion about the cause of the past oppression of woman, it is currently still a popular argument today.