The Role Of Women In The 19th Century

One of the easiest ways many scholars tell how people in different cultures were looked at is through paintings or pictures that showcase what life was like back then. The notion of a picture being worth a thousand words truly comes alive when looking at ancient historical drawings that reveal so many different factors about how the people in the society lived. The same can be said about the various pictures and paintings taking throughout the United States history especially with the various roles women had in each generation of Americans. Over times the way the American people perceived women would become a cyclical pattern as each generation would leave its own ubiquitous footprint on history, however as time would go on the footprints …show more content…
As proof the painting “The Teacher” shows a women as a teacher something that would have been frowned upon in the colonial times. Now in the ever improving America, people are starting to value what women can do for instance teaching became “a natural profession for women” (DuBois, Dumenil 235). The painting fully realized the fact that teaching was one of the many callings for women, something so special where many people would also consider women to be superior to men when it came to teaching. It got to the point where women wrote a petition to congress “urging public support for women’s teacher training” (DuBois, Dumenil 235), this evidence proves that women were starting to get seen in a different spotlight. The painting was a beacon of hope for women as numerous events throughout the 1800’s would be affected by this new found hope for women. One of them being an increased interest in political issues that was sparked by Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton who were spearheading the way for an overall reform for women’s rights. The painting also demonstrated a women working a job that in the colonial times would have been taboo, the main reason for this was that America was now a land where church and state were separated. Thus allowing more equal opportunities for the entire country, which would mean that …show more content…
With these new power in tact its society would somehow go back in time in the way men and women were treated. This is observed in an advertisement for a Motorola Television in 1951 which shows a family and there being detailed explanations next to each member describing what the T.V means to them. To the wife in the family it represented things that would have rung true in the late 1700’s in America as the ad would say that it was a beautiful thing to have in her living room and that it would always keep the family happy. To the father in the ad it represented a way of relaxing after work, obviously people in the 1700’s did not have televisions but the way the ad described how men and women roles were at the time almost exactly. While the 1950’s were a great time to be an American as being one the main victor of the Second World War it’s economy and prosperity were second to none, however this caused a bit of a relaxation in society as both men and women returned to a status quo not seen in a long time. The advertisement expressed quite simply the fact that men and women were somewhat at peace with each other, unlike previous generations where pictures would show strong independent women fighting for their cause in a majority of the pictures/ advertisements shown in the 1950’s reveal a tranquil family existence between the two genders. One of the