womans roles in the early 19th century?

Question

what were womans roles in life in the early 19th century? (what was expected of them etc.)

Answer 1

Marraige, Motherhood, Domesticity. End of.

Answer 2

As with so many other things, it depended a lot on what class of woman we're talking about.

Most women were of poorer classes. You could marry, and then you'd have kids and run the household, and do a lot of the labor -- keep a garden for food, feed chickens and collect the eggs, milk cows, etc.

And cook, clean, make clothes, take care of everyone in the household. (Man works from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done, went the saying.)

Or you could be a servant, taking care of rich people's households -- taking care of the children, cooking, cleaning, etc.

In upper classes, you "ran" the household in the sense of organising the servants and making the decisions (telling the cooks what to cook, and the gardeners to plant, for instance). You were also in charge of the social and spiritual life of the family, keeping the calendar of engagements, planning social events, and often volunteering time to community service.

On the whole, women had fewer options than men.

Reading literature of the day would be a great way to understand more about this (I don't mean modern novels about those times, but things written then, especially things written by women then -- Jane Austin, for instance).

Answer 3

Hon, you could take a Master's Degree in that topic - in fact, several women have done exactly that in recent years. Google the topics "women's rights", "sufferage" and "Women's Hall of Fame" (located here in upstate New York at Seneca Falls).

Although it did vary somewhat, women in the early Nineteenth Century weren't much better off than were black slaves on southern plantations. You were the property of your father,and when married, of your husband. He, not you, owned the clothes on your back and your children were your husband's property, not yours. You could not enter into a business agreement - not even to sell the products you made with your own hands - or keep your own money - that was your husband's, too. You might write some of the most lasting and memorable poetry ever written, but you could not get a publisher to print it: you'd have to assume a man's identity first and have your material published as if it were written by a man. Payment for purchased copies of your poetry would go into an account managed by your husband or another male related to you, such as your brother, father or uncle.

You were expected to manage a household - a long, dreary, beknumbing task that began before sun-up and continued without letup until after dark. You cooked, you sewed, you cleaned, you slaved. You planted a large garden, you kept a flock of chickens, you kept and milked a cow. You wiped snotty noses and nursed every member of your family when illness struck - which it often did, and it often took several of your young children to their graves. If you became widowed, you were s*it outa luck - your farm or your town home became the property of your husband's nearest living male relative.

As for marital relations, you were to be available any time your husband felt amorous, and he had the right to kill you on the spot in many communities if he so much as suspected you of having a romantic interest in any other male - but HE was free to "sew his wild oats" without consequence...in fact, an STD was often admired as evidence of his "manliness" by his fellow males.

Know what? You wouldn't have wanted to be a woman in the 1800's. Life for women simply s u c k e d back then!

Answer 4

they were expected to do all the cleaning cooking etc and go to work in the fields as well. look after the children

Answer 5

domestic labour around the house, understand and comfort emotions from other members of the family, child care

Answer 6

i wasn't about at the time but i guess they had to de-frag the hard drives, clean the mice and ensure that the VPN tunnels were as clean as poss

Answer 7

cook, clean, have babies, and listen to their husbands like they were stupid