The life of women acquired a completely different shade, which was unusual for the rest of the world. The position of Native American, European, and Black women has changed a lot, giving them more opportunities, but also retaining certain limitations. It is worth noting that women’s lives were determined by factors such as demographic imbalance. There were many more men than women; a high birth rate and an equally high mortality rate; a social structure in which there were practically no boundaries between family and community, between private and social life. Thus, due to the widespread puritanical morality, cultural tradition prescribed certain tasks to women and assigned them the role of subordination to a man (DuBois & Dumenil, 2018, p. 73). This factor is predominant when describing the main changes in the lives of European women.
Initially, all white women in the United States were characterized through bringing up kids, keeping a home, and supporting and helping their husbands. Most women running the household were engaged in serious and hard physical labor: washing, cleaning, cooking, sewing, and gardening (DuBois & Dumenil, 2018). In low-income families, women’s labor was supplemented by work in the fields during harvest (DuBois & Dumenil, 2018, p. 118). Conservative family ideals were preserved in society, emphasizing the supremacy of men in public life and their right to make decisions alone.
White women (social workers) depended on African American servants who were supposed to relieve them of household duties. Often Southerners involved black women in missionary activities; they were formerly enslaved people or daughters of theirs (Lewis, 2019). In North America, Native American women played a role in society that contrasted with the role of settlers. Many women were leaders in Native American tribes. For example, Cherokee women participated in treaty negotiations with the United States, and women in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy acted and continued to act as political leaders and elect chiefs (Lewis, 2019). Other women were assigned to care for children and cook; their other roles varied depending on the tribal groups. Thus, the position of women in this period was quite heterogeneous, but they played an integral role in the life of the entire American society. Summing up, it should be noted that the transformation of the role of women in American society has been noticeable.
References
DuBois, E. C., & Dumenil, L. (2018). Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents (5th ed.). Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Lewis, J. J. (2019). Notable women and their public roles in the early 1800s. ThoughtCo. Web.