Women In The Gilded Age

Prior to the ratification of the nineteenth amendment, women in America lacked a general right that was intended for all citizens. Achieving the right to vote for women was a long sought after event that proved to be a turning point in American history. Women’s suffrage is a deeply rooted movement that can be found in the minds of many men and women who fought for social reform as well as 20th century literature including Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. In the words of History.com, 19th century America considered the only true woman to be “a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.”

The late 1800’s were a crucial time for women in America. Typically, during this time women were discriminated against in every aspect of day to day life. However, men already had the basic rights that women all around the world during the late 1800’s were fighting for. As well as this , women were mostly stereotyped and were not given the same opportunities as men in everyday life.

During the 1800s women faced many different types of discriminations and stereotypes. Women didn’t have an education which they couldn’t pursue a career. After they would get married they were still not able to vote or even own their own property. They were seen as second-class citizens because their rights were always inferior to the men that were actually dominant in the society. Their responsibilities were just to keep their home under control and their family.

The dominant classes of people in the 1800’s were that of the white male protestant, and most whom fit the picture were not wealthy or powerful. However, the great majority who attained independent wealth and status were. Those whom fit the following description were for sure socially disadvantaged; African slave, Native American, a female, or Catholic. And those of rich and power considered themselves Englishmen. As they would push the Native Americans of the land, enslave the Africans, and subordinate the women, these Englishmen would insist of their freedom to define themselves (Gorn, 2007 pp.67).

In 1860 women were mistreated, especially black women. Women in the 1800s were treated unfairly compared to white men. Men saw women as angelic creatures and that they shouldn't be/ capable of being voters, legislators, free traders, divines, physicians, and lawyers. Until 1837, no college in the United States accepted women as regular students. Some women teachers were underpaid.

With the passage of the 19th change in 1920, that gave women the right to vote, women in America finally achieved the political equality they had fighted for so long to achieve. They called themselves feminists. A big gap began to form between the "new" women of the 1920s and the previous generation. In earlier times, feminists commonly thought women could not handle both a career and a family successfully, believing that one would hold back the development of the other.

“This women has violated the roles rightly reserved for women participating in “manly activities”’, many rules made it so that it was not a land of opportunity for women, children and even Native Americans. During the 1600’s many people such as Native Americans, English, and African Americans, (both men and women) which played an important role in the question was it a land of opportunity for children, women, indentured servants, colonist and Native Americans. Children had to work before and after school, working on plantations or chores such as weaving clothes, or feeding animals which gave them little free time. Women didn’t have the rights they should of had, the men thought that women weren’t strong and that they shouldn 't be doing manly

Women in the Progressive Era began with little to no rights at all. They didn't have any other role in society especially for poor white women except to stay at home and do what their husbands tell them to do. Over time women began to give themselves an identity, and rights through feminism, icons, and taking action. They began to make a change and make a bang culturally. Jane Adams on of the first most prominent female activists created this idea of "the new woman," during the Progressive Era.

Between 1880 and 1910, female workers in the United States grew from 2.6 million to 7.8 million. During the Progressive Era, women gained the right to control the money they earned, own property and take custody of their children in divorce. But not all women believed in social and economic equality, finding it just as threatening to the fabric of American

American Women in the Late 1800’s Were married American women in the late 1800’s expected to restrict their sphere of interest to the home and the family? In the late 1800’s women were second-class citizens. Women were expected to limit their interest to the home and family. Women were not encouraged to obtain a real education or pursue a professional career. After marriage, women did not have the right to own their own property, keep their own wages, or sign a contract.

The Unnamed Woman Up until the 1900’s woman had few rights, thus they relied heavily on men. Women could not vote, they could not own their own property, and very few worked. Women’s jobs were solely to care for children and take care of the home. Women during this time, typically accepted their roles in society and the economy ( “Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1909”).

The status of women changed in the Progressive Era. Middle-class white married women still did not work outside the home. Women in the workforce were mostly young and single, or widows, divorcees, poor married women, and women of color. Most women

If they were given the same liberty, it would allow them to conceive positive ideas and thoughts that would benefit everybody. The thought that women should only be constrained to their domestic duties is degrading because for a person capable of the worship of God and the ability to ponder over religious ideas, they are not allowed to contemplate anything other than simple, menial tasks. She finishes by saying that the souls of women are equal to men even if they are not physically equal. However, just because men are physically superior does not mean that also translates to mental superiority. If anything, it shows that women were given the capacity of an intelligent mind to compensate this shortcoming.

The term “New Woman” was coined by the writer and speaker Sarah Grand in 1894 it was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late nineteenth century a time where women were subdued and were not given desirable status and rights . It soon became a popular and a catchy-phrase in newspapers and books and journals. The New Woman, a significant cultural icon of the of the time, originated from the stereotypical Victorian woman who was exactly an opposite of the women which was being portrayed from centuries. She was intelligent, educated, emancipated, independent and self-supporting and a one who could take stand for herself. The New Women were not only middle-class female radicals, but also factory and office workers.

1. Important women in the Victorian era 1.1 Queen Victoria (1819-1901) Alexandrina Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom from June 1837 until January 1901 and Empress of India from May 1876 until January 1901. Her reign of almost 64 years is both in the UK and overseas known as the Victorian era. Victoria, born on May 24, 1819, was the only child of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Through her mother, she had a half-brother and a half-sister: Carl and Feodora.