19th Century the Role of Women in the Family
In the nineteenth century, the role of women in the family was changing. Depending on your race and class, different women had different experiences. This history helped to set up what our stereotypical views are today. Although some views were left in the past; it is these views and experiences that serve as baggage to present day times.
The women of the west
The women of the west, much like their colonized grandmothers, were accustomed to long hard work but had a highly developed sense of morality. They had to build communities and civilize barbaric land. As the backbone of the family, she had to insure the permanence of western settlements and the continuing of civilized values. They knew when they went with sadness that they would be losing all the comforts of home. After all the hardships, loneliness, death, and disaster that they faced to get there; the hardships only began at their journey’s end. They were isolated in deep woods in log cabins with dirt floors, as did the new settlers at the first colonizations. The westward women either miserably failed or completely prospered on the idea that they could have courageous and self reliant qualities that the eastern society required or valued in women. Social or economic status wasn’t an issue in the west; it was the ability to survive that mattered. Women had an extreme leeway in the way they could act and still be considered a lady. Woman out numbered men, so they could discard a husband and get another at their desire. Non white women did not have a high regard in the west. Indian, Mexican, and Chinese women were raped, murdered, and mutilated by white men. Sometimes Indians raped white women. The contributions of the white women led to their civil rights: education, property, wage control, divorce, and the vote. With the woman’s suffrage movement, the west was the first states to be won.
Native American women
Native American women lived in a state of servitude. They did everything in the
The women of the west
The women of the west, much like their colonized grandmothers, were accustomed to long hard work but had a highly developed sense of morality. They had to build communities and civilize barbaric land. As the backbone of the family, she had to insure the permanence of western settlements and the continuing of civilized values. They knew when they went with sadness that they would be losing all the comforts of home. After all the hardships, loneliness, death, and disaster that they faced to get there; the hardships only began at their journey’s end. They were isolated in deep woods in log cabins with dirt floors, as did the new settlers at the first colonizations. The westward women either miserably failed or completely prospered on the idea that they could have courageous and self reliant qualities that the eastern society required or valued in women. Social or economic status wasn’t an issue in the west; it was the ability to survive that mattered. Women had an extreme leeway in the way they could act and still be considered a lady. Woman out numbered men, so they could discard a husband and get another at their desire. Non white women did not have a high regard in the west. Indian, Mexican, and Chinese women were raped, murdered, and mutilated by white men. Sometimes Indians raped white women. The contributions of the white women led to their civil rights: education, property, wage control, divorce, and the vote. With the woman’s suffrage movement, the west was the first states to be won.
Native American women
Native American women lived in a state of servitude. They did everything in the
References: Hymowitz,Carol. Weissman,Michaele. “A History of Women in America.” Bantom Books (1978). Collins, Gail. “America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines.” Harper Collins Publishers (2003).