Women in the Early 19th Century

The American try that began as a Republic after ratification of the Constitution created governmental, social, and economic participation for its citizens, but non for women. The status of women in the early nineteenth century was influence by economic considerations, religious beliefs, and long-held notions of pistillate inferiority. While poor, laboring women suffered the most, the characteristics of inequality were evident in all social classes. The Proper Role of Women in the Early RepublicThe early 19th century experienced a shift, at least for women in the urban centers of the Northeast, from the household economies that reflected an agricultural familiarity to the necessity of linking female responsibilities with their husbands careers. For lower class women, this meant supplementing family income by working either in early industrial mills, as domestic servants, or vending on city streets. Upper middle class women focused on social endeavors tied to their husbands emplo yment and continued social upper mobility.This included supervising servants, facilitating parties, and raising the children. Women who voiced any political activism were frowned upon. Perhaps the only place a woman might venture such opinions was around the dinner table. Above all, women were equated with virtue and purity. Middle and upper class women devoted time to helping charities that sought to take over the plight of the poor, especially widows and abandoned mothers with children. They worked with Protestant missions and labored to save poor women from prostitution.Due to the cult of female purity, they were viewed as being the best teachers, the moral guardians of society. Women in the Working Class In the early 19th century, more Northeast cities, especially port cities, saw an increase in crude mass production industries, as in the first textile mills. One result was the use of poor class women working for jazzy wages, often to augment their husbands meager incomes. S ome poor women left the cities during periods of harvest to advert farmers needing cheap laborers.Others earned meager sums vending on city streets. Still others worked in the growing secure trades or as domestic servants. Single mothers, however, were often forced to rely on the Almshouses and the various charities gear toward the poor. Widows had a particularly difficult time. Historian Christine Stansell, in her 1986 study of New York women 1789 to 1860, writes that widowhood was virtually synonymous with impoverishment. some other result of the changes in female status was the slow decline in birthrates.Historians John DEmilio and Estelle B. freedwoman state that, Economic interest encouraged some families to have fewer children. They demonstrate a attainable correlation of the rise of industrialization and the decline of agricultural pursuits with steadily dour birthrates throughout the 19th century. continue of Protestant Theological Shifts By the early 19th century, P rotestantism had discarded earlier notions of mans human relationship to God. This was particularly true of the Calvinist principle of predestination.Religion focused on an individual relationship with God and displace on man a greater sense of controlling ones destiny. These views were being shaped by Transcendentalism as well as the emphasis on personal commitment flood tide out of the Second Great Awakening. Such views had a direct impact on sexuality and lowering birthrates. Sexuality was no longer simply a loveless act of procreation. Thus, families limited the number of children ground on their economic situation. Still, the changing attitude was not universal and men and women had numerous children, especially in rural, farm areas.Lucretia Mott, an early advocate of womens rights, for example, had six children. Female Status in the Early 19th Century Although the expectations of women in the early 19th century were shifting, their status within a patriarchal society remai ned the same. Politically, they were powerless. Job opportunities were severely limited. Because of the social expectations that tied female dependence on men, single women and widows were the most vulnerable. even out upper middle class women were doomed to conform to patterns of daily life that were dictated by their husbands.