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Women Reform Dbq

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Women Reform Dbq
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During the time period from the end of the American Revolution to the Civil War, American womanhood changed greatly. Due to differing beliefs during the time the American women’s ideals became to change. At the time, main beliefs were the “republican motherhood”, or the thought that women had power in the country’s politics in the sense that they raised the next generation, and the “cult of domesticity”, or the thought that women should be submissive, moral, and take care of their husbands and family. These beliefs greatly limited the power of the women in the 18th century. Due to these ideas, such as the “republican motherhood” and “cult of domesticity” during the time period from the American Revolution to the Civil War, women started to leave their old set place at the home and family to work in factories and fight for equality.
From the American Revolution to Civil War, women were regarded as beneath man and were treated as that. Benjamin Rush’s, Thoughts upon Female Education, illustrates the “republic motherhood” belief. He based his opinions on this popular belief which thought that women should be educated since they taught the children who would grow up to be a part of the nation. Benjamin Rush thought that women should only be educated “to concur in instructing their sons in the principles of liberty and government”. Furthermore, women were viewed as inferior to man. In Putnam’s monthly magazine of American literature, science, and art, “Women, and the ‘Women’s Movement’”, the belief of “cult of domesticity” is voiced. This thought that the women’s place was at the home and purpose was the take care of their husbands and families. The magazine states that the “natural inequality of the sexes…enables women to be the fountain of unmixed blessing she is to man” lessening women’s importance in society. Also, John Henry Noyes, who left Putnam, Virginia to create the Oneida Community, often times stated that women were less than men and even referred to

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