what was the role of women in boston in the 1640s?

Answer 1

In the 1640's, a proper Bostonian woman would have tended to domestic matters and fairly little else.

They would have been expected to be quiet, submissive to men, and members of the Puritan church.

Of course, all generalizations (including this one) are false, because in every age and in every society you will find people who refuse to fit into a set of preconceived roles, and such women as Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer are among them.

Anne Hutchinson started out as a "good Puritan woman" by the ideas of her society. She cared for the home and raised her children, and was a midwife. All in all, a pillar of the community.

She even began to hold meetings in her home for her neighbors--women only, of course--at which they would discuss the sermons preached the Sunday before. So far, so good--this wasn't stepping out of her designated role.

However, she ran afoul of the authorities by forming opinions of her own and expressing them in these meetings--I believe what got her in trouble was a rejection of the religious belief that babies are born in a state of sin.

Mary Dyer was one of her friends who attended the meetings--she was later hanged for the "crime" of professing beliefs of the Society of Friends, better known as "Quakers."

Anne was banished from Boston and later died when Indians attacked her new homestead on Long Island.

Answer 2

Are you asking in terms of what a woman had to do labour wise? Or indeed their social status? I'm not an American but the question is still pertinent in terms of societal structure albeit in the 1640's or 1940's up to the present day. Even then, has the female role evolved since the 1640's in meaningful terms?

Answer 3

One way to answer this question would be to look up Anne Hutchison and Mary Dyer on wikipedia or the web. These two women got into trouble in the early Boston colony because they started to do things that were considered not appropriate for women. So any discussion of them will include what it is that they were or were not supposed to do!