Women's Role In Colonial America Essay

The Colonial Era covers a period from 1607 to 1776, exploring the discovery and colonization of the lands of America, the Indian Wars, the establishment of the colonies and the road to Revolution and the American Revolutionary War. During this period, the living conditions were extremely harsh. The question raised here is; what was the role of women in Colonial America and their influence to the revolution movement?
As a starting point, even since the “original sin”, the position of women has been degraded. In Colonial America, the life and status of the women varied greatly from colony to colony and among different ethnic groups and their roles were determined by their wealth, religion and status. In short, we could categorize them in Puritan

women, wealthy European colonial women, unmarried women and widows, colonial indentured servants, native Indian women and Colonial slave women.
Generally, the early women colonists and settlers were expected to help the men in a variety of hard labor tasks.

In the course of time, the roles of Colonial women were defined primarily as wives and mothers. They had to run the household and raise the children, while they manufactured goods, such as dairy products and textiles, in order to be resourceful with their family’s budget. Simultaneously, men dominated their lives. Colonial women would be married by the age of twenty and bore large numbers of children, due to the fact that the child mortality rate was extremely high in that era.
When it comes to their education, it was extremely impoverished. Women were only taught to read so that they could learn the Bible, let alone write. A Colonial woman could be seen as oppressed victim of a patriarchal society, subordinate first to her father and, then, to her husband. Moreover, there were many stereotypes in these societies. Whilst men were considered to be more intellectual and as the breadwinners, women were perceived as the “weaker sex”, feeble-minded and more inclined to sin and

err.
Concerning their political rights, women had no standing in the eyes of the law, in the early Colonial society. They were without political representation and they could not vote. Besides, women could not stand for themselves, as their husbands spoke for them. Regarding their property rights, men virtually owned their wives, as they did their material possessions. Their homes and their children were not theirs. They could not divorce and even single women could not make contracts, make a will without the explicit consent of her husband, buy property, sue or be sued in court. In contrast, widows could inherit their husband’s property, run his business, buy and sell property, collect and keep rents and file lawsuits. Therefore, that is the reason why many widows consciously chose not to remarry, after their husbands’ death.
Apparently, the values of the Enlightenment had a great impact on these societies and more liberal ideologies were established.

In the early American Republic, the concept of Republican Motherhood was based on the idea that women may not be citizens, but they had a political purpose and their lives were dedicated to the service of civic virtue. Colonial women combined domesticity and politics. Actually, these women were expected to help promote the values of republicanism. Thus, they had to raise their male children and discipline their husbands, so as to be virtuous members of the society. Besides, Christianity embraced the ideology of Republican Motherhood as a way of transmitting the religious values to

children.
Hence, we could say that women had a subliminal role, given that they did not have the power of the ballot, but they could influence to a great extent the vote of their husbands and sons. Consequently, women remained in the private sphere, but they could define the public sphere at the same time. Because of their special role, women were given greater educational access and their position was generally upgraded in the community.
As a final point, American women contributed significantly to the War of Independence. These women ran the businesses and kept the family farms, defended their homes and neighborhoods and served as maids and cooks for the soldiers. Despite the fact that most of them were noncombatants, the women had to confront the threat of violence, suffering, rape or death by the enemy troops.
All in all, Colonial women constitute a source of inspiration. It is an undisputable fact that their contribution was of vital significance, as they formed a nation for future generations. Not only did they form the consciousness of America, but they also gradually shaped ideologies that still exist. As a matter of fact, their daughters still raise men and women to become virtuous citizens, but now their virtues are readily counted at the ballot box and in political offices.