Women in the 19th Century

Roles:

In the 19th century (an even today), women were expected to be the caretaker of her home an family, and keep things calm an put together as her husband worked. In the photo to the right, you see a woman behind drapery, which was to hide them from the rest of the people in the house, and with her is a young boy and girl, who she is teaching to read, a dog which is the artists way of showing that even though the husband was the man of the house, when he was away the wife was the one everyone answered to. She is also holding a baby while she was tending to the other children, which shows how good she's become at what she does. Also, you'd think that since her husband leaves her alone to care for the children that the house would bee a mess an the kids would be out of control, but if you look at the picture you'll see how neat and organized she keeps the home, and how tame and put together the children are which shows her hold on everything within the home. Since women had so many responsibilities, an were so good at doing what they did within the home, the men in charge were taken aback by their demands and didn't take them seriously.

Seneca Falls Convention:

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During this time, the rights of women needed to change. The Laws and Practices included some of the conditions and laws for women, some of which were almost painful to read as someone who would have been directly influenced by them had I lived during that time. These include the law stating it legal for a man to beat his wife, for a woman's children to be taken from her upon the death of her husband, and the practice of silence among women in public, as it was seen as improper for them to speak. At the Seneca Falls Convention in upstate New York, the idea/ demand of women gaining the right to vote was publicly expressed for the first time. Resolutions to the harsher laws in Laws and Practices were addressed in the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, which included the retraction of the restriction of women being able to attend colleges/ gain a worthy education for themselves in the United States.

Reactions:

In class we were asked to answer the question: How did the mid-19th century society react to the women's demand of equality? Well, there really is no simple answer. Like any movement, there were people for and against the cause. A lot of the publicity for the movement was through newspaper, such as the Oneida Whig, which was strongly and clearly against the women's rights movement and their demands which is shown in one of their publishings of August 1, 1848, which said "They should recollect however, the illustrious member of their bolting sisterhood who had not long worn the nether garments before she found it in her heart to disgrace her man's apparel and to cry like a woman." which shows that much like another newspaper called The Recorder, who posted a similar article, they didn't take the movement seriously. However, there were also newspapers who were all for equal rights, such as the National Reformer, which wrote on August 10, 1848, “We think it the duty of every candid person to hear every proposal for the elevation of our race...", which shows their respect towards the women and their cause. All in all, people were finally beginning to acknowledge that women were treated unfairly compared to men, and rather than ignoring it they were helping to fix it.

Women vs. Men:








Another question we were asked to answer was very similar to the first, but hit a little closer to home. It was: Does 21st century society still react differently to men and women? Well, the answer is simply yes. However, contrary to the video embedded above, which is clearly stating that a woman is shunned for doing the same thing a man is praised for, I say women are not always the victims. In no attempt to belittle the daily struggle of women trying to break free from the social boundaries made for us hundreds of years ago, I'm not afraid to say that men are also struggling. For example, if a boy so much as wears a pink shirt to school, he's going to be called "gay" or "soft", because everyone else is too afraid to break free from the boy's uniform consisting of all Nike everything, with the occasional college football sweatshirt. In short, yes, 21st century still does react differently to men and women.