It is hard to imagine that anyone could argue the mistreatment experienced by women in the late 1800’s. Men have decided the legal framework within which women could operate. As could be expected, their rights were greatly diminished. As a general rule, they were treated as second rate citizens with little authority to control their own money, property, or even their own bodies. Not seen as equals to men in any realm, women were treated unfairly, to say the least. They did not have the right to vote, were not encouraged to further their education, and were perceived as simple housewives who should only manage the home and the people in it. Treatment of women today has changed dramatically from that of the late 1800’s due to the Women’s Suffragette …show more content…
Movement. Several courageous individuals paved the way for the female generations to follow, each obtaining more rights than the previous. The suffrage movement, supported by some extremely brave ladies, ultimately allowed housewives the opportunity to be anything they wanted to be and more. Accordingly, women’s suffrage was of immensely great importance to the women of the late 1800’s, and was one of the most significant political movements in history. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s contribution to this cause was monumental to the start of this movement. They, along with plenty of other women and rights activists, fought for equality for women in society. Not having the right to vote made women feel as if their opinions and political views were trivial and not equal to those of men. However, men felt as if women were too emotional, less educated, and were unable to evaluate political issues that did not pertain to a group consisting of mostly stay at home mothers. Obviously, as history has now demonstrated, exactly the opposite is true. The female gender has been proven to be more capable than males in multiple ways. Statistics show that women have longer attention spans, a greater capacity for noting detail, larger memories, and are far better at multi-tasking. In addition, they are more empathetic and able to see other’s points of view. All of these factors would not only cause them to be equal to male voters, but arguably the favorable sex regarding this topic. This same bias was applied to a woman’s equivalency in marital issues. As a matter of fact, marriage in the late 1800’s was a lifetime commitment giving the husband full rights to everything the wife owned.
This was a vast problem for all females of this time, because even their body, technically, was not owned by them. In an article adopted by the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York it declares, “the act of marriage either ended a woman’s independent existence or transferred control of her life from her father to her husband” (Property Act of 1848). It was commonplace for women to be treated as if they were property and not as human beings. They did not have the rights to their inheritances. Anything left to a woman went straight to the husband, leaving the wife with no control over how it was used or spent. Due to this fact, the value of a soon-to-be bride was often determined by their likelihood to inherit significant property from their fathers. Also, even a married woman was not able to own here own land. Any acquisition of property had to be placed under the husband’s name, leaving women unable to purchase land without their husband being present to provide his signature. Women of this time were not able to sign any contracts without the presence of their husband. A girl pretty much signed her life away as soon as she got married. During the 1800’s, it was seldom acceptable for a woman to get a divorce. Should a woman have run away from an unhappy or abusive marriage, they were captured by the law and punished. It was not until 1891 that they stopped capturing and punishing women for fleeing. If a woman did work while she was married, she was forbidden to keep her income. Should a widow inherit the dower rights of their husband in the absence of a will, they were not even allowed to control the assets. Very few females were anything more than housewives and mothers. They were not encouraged to acquire a degree or seek professional
careers. For this reason, most young girls were not allowed to obtain college degrees or pursue a professional career. Wives were not viewed as breadwinners in the household, but instead as a supporting role to their husbands. A woman’s job was to cook, clean, nurture, and entertain. Very few universities accepted female students. The few that did were segregated for females only and not very highly regarded at all. Parents raised their daughters, preparing them to be good housewives and mothers with no support towards furthering their education. They were not thought to be as smart, strong, or capable as men and, when seeking jobs, had a very difficult time obtaining a position. The few women able to acquire jobs were not regarded as highly as those who capitulated and elected to remain at home. A girl’s role was not to grow up to be a student or a professional but to be a subservient homemaker and raise the children. Consequently, women in the late 1800’s were almost entirely responsible for the care and development of their children. As mothers, their duties consisted of cooking all of the daily meals and nurturing their families. Additionally, it was their responsibility to take care of all of the cleaning. Of course, this included every aspect of maintaining the home which included washing clothes without the benefit of an electric washing machine or dryer, pressing clothing with an iron heated on the stove, sewing, preparing meals, and a plethora of other chores inside of the home. While wive’s were expected to keep the family and daily life running efficiently, they were precluded from making any of the decisions affecting their family’s lives. Women were expected to take a subordinate role to their husbands. The husband was the ruler of the home, making most of the decisions and dictating family dynamics. Women of this time endured very stressful lives to which there was little value assigned. Any aspirations other than these were disregarded. Ultimately, the repression of women in the late 1800’s was unethical and was almost equivalent to slavery. As a result of these constraints, the “fairer” sex united and fought diligently for change. This included marches and demonstrations, even going so far as to chain themselves to public fixtures to draw attention to their cause. It is critical to remember the weakened legal position from which they fought. Additionally, suffragette represented a considerable threat to the authoritarian position held by men. The financial position of many husbands could potentially be endangered by these changes, and many aspects of this uprising would, in effect, diminish the power previously held by men. It is doubtful that few of that period, either man or woman, could have foreseen the changes that resulted when women were able to use their intellect and talents. All things considered, today we easily accept the abilities of women. In 2017 the female gender has proven it’s capability in business, medicine, leadership, and service. In most cases, they have been able to make these strides while maintaining their homes and caring for their families. It is far too easy to forget the gradual struggle they have faced to gain equivalency, and there are many circumstances in which the contest continues. Thanks to the bravery of several very special individuals, a movement was set into motion which opened the door for this progression and women are now leaders in every professional field available. The importance of the female contribution to every walk of life is such that a reversal to archaic gender unfairness is very unlikely to be repeated. In my opinion, there should never again be a point in time when we treat women as second class citizens. The very foundation of our country is based on the value of each individual. Many groups face the same kind of discrimination that created the Women’s Suffrage Movement. The courageous mothers and daughters who met inequity with bravery have opened the door for many to follow. It is left for all of us to ponder the achievements to be seen when all persons attain these rights.
Today, women and men have equal rights, however, not long ago men believed women were lower than them. During the late eighteenth century, men expected women to stay at home and raise children. Women were given very few opportunities to expand their education past high school because colleges and universities would not accept females. This was a loss for women everywhere because it took away positions of power for them. It was even frowned upon if a woman showed interest in medicine or law because that was a man’s place, not a woman’s, just like it was a man’s duty to vote and not a woman’s.
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 had not only been denied the voting rights and the lack of education before the nineteenth century, they had also been restricted the right to own property. Women who were married were basically owned by their husbands, up until the mid nineteenth century, so they had no regulations with money or their property (Hermes 1). If you were unmarried, however, you were allowed to be owner of property, but when they married the women became property of the man (Talbott 1). As stated previously before, women who were not married were allowed to vote as well as hold property, but a small amount of women did. Marriage was a disadvantage for the women, because they lost most of the rights they had previously. They were not allowed to buy or sell property (Erickson 1).
Even though married women could not own property or anything of the sort, single women were able to own land, make a contract, initiate lawsuits, and pay taxes. Even with the privelages bestowed upon the...
As history continues to form, it is easy to forget the struggles women have faced. In the early 1900’s a new generation of women began to flourish. Issues such as women’s suffrage, women in the work force, and hope of equality began to rise and mingle in the air overpowered by men. Women started exploring their role in society as beneficial contributors. They began to speak their minds, many finding their voice amongst literature. Willa Cather was amongst one of the many flourishing women authors. Born in 1873 Cather grew up just in time to immerse her soul in writing. Her writing eloquently captivated the changing society, in which she was living. Cather went on to write several novels, and in 1923 she wrote, A Lost Lady, casting an idolized women as the main character, Marina Forrester. The relationships between Marian Forrester and dominant male characters in Willa Cather’s novel, A Lost Lady, demonstrates the strong influential hold men had on women during early 1900’s.
On a personal note, in researching a paper on marriage and divorce a few semesters ago, I found that in the early Victorian era (1935-1901), a woman entering marriage had almost no rights. All her property automatically became her husband's. Even if she had her own land, her husband received the income from it. A husband had the right to lock up his wife. If he beat her, she had no legal redress. The law mostly removed itself from marital relations. Married women were put into the same category as lunatics, idiots, outlaws and children, and treated as such.
During the 1890’s married women had little to no freedom or rights, the men controlled
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 were confronted by many social obligation in the late nineteenth century. Women were living lives that reflected their social rank. They were expected to be economically dependent and legally inferior. No matter what class women were in, men were seen as the ones who go to work and make the money. That way, the women would have to be dependent since they were not able to go to work and make a good salary. No matter what class a woman was in, she could own property in her own name. When a woman became married she " lost control of any property she owned, inherited, or earned" ( Kagan et al. 569). A woman's legal identity was given to her husband.
This American Revolutionary experience had a great impact on the eventual movement for women's rights. Previous to their rights movement, women, by law, were declared inferior to men, had no separate existence from their husbands and every one of their possessions, acquired or inherited, would be passed on to the ownership of her husband. The children in a marriage belonged to the father alone and the custody of the children if one was to get divorced, was usually given to him. If a woman's husband died, she would receive only the use of one third of his real estate. They could be beaten as long as the stick was no bigger than a man's thumb and single women were excluded from earning a living, with the exception in a few poorly paid trades.
Women were only second-class citizens. They were supposed to stay home cook, clean, achieve motherhood and please their husbands. The constitution did not allow women to vote until the 19th amendment in 1971 due to gender discrimination. Deeper in the chapter it discusses the glass ceiling. Women by law have equal opportunities, but most business owners, which are men, will not even take them serious. Women also encounter sexual harassment and some men expect them to do certain things in order for them to succeed in that particular workplace. The society did not allow women to pursue a real education or get a real job. Women have always been the submissive person by default, and men have always been the stronger one, and the protector. Since the dawn of time, the world has seen a woman as a trophy for a man’s arm and a sexual desire for a man’s
Eighteenth-century English jurist Sir William Blackstone declared in a magisterial passage, “By marriage, the very being or legal existence of a woman is suspended, or at least it is incorporated or consolidated into that of the husband, under whose wing, protection, and cover she performs everything, and she is therefore called in our law a femme-covert” (The Nineteenth Century Intro. Pg. 171). It was not until 1848, in the married woman’s property act of New York that women gained some rights regarding material possessions.
Women in the nineteenth century lived in an age described by gender difference. At the beginning of the century, women could not vote, could not sue or be sued, could not testify in court, had limited control over personal property after marriage, were rarely granted legal custody of their children in cases of divorce, and were unaccepted from institutions of higher education. Women were expected to stay obedient to their fathers and husbands. Their career choices were also extremely limited. Middle and upper-class women generally remained home, caring for their children and running the household. Lower-class women did work outside of the home, but usually as poorly-paid local servants or laborers in factories and mills. Women in
In the 1800s divorces were frowned upon and everything was given to the males. In the Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton enumerated specific complaints concerning the oppressed status of women in American society: their inability to vote; exclusion from higher education and professional careers; subordination to male authority in both church and state; and legal victimization in terms of wages, property rights, and divorce (Driscoll 1).... ... middle of paper ... ...
Throughout the early 1800s, British women most often were relegated to a subordinate role in society by their institutionalized obligations, laws, and the more powerfully entrenched males. In that time, a young woman’s role was close to a life of servitude and slavery. Women were often controlled by the men in their lives, whether it was a father, brother or the eventual husband. Marriage during this time was often a gamble; one could either be in it for the right reasons, such as love, or for the wrong reasons, such as advancing social status. In 19th century Britain, laws were enacted to further suppress women and reflected the societal belief that women were supposed to do two things: marry and have children.