For women in colonial times things were difficult, and liberties were limited, they were expected to be the basis for the common colonial family, and therefore were often treated like servants. Women were placed on the lower scale of the social totem pole. However, how low they were depended upon the wealth of their family, or the color of their skin. Even through their many hardships colonial women overcame their limitations and succeeded in the new world, as what some people would call the backbone of colonial family’s and future America. Women’s role in colonial times varied greatly upon the social ranking of their family.
Wealthy colonial women lived a life of greater luxury than most of the others. They lived in large mansions, and wore extremely elaborate and expensive clothing. Due to their wealth, they commonly had servants and slaves that carried out a majority of the house, child care, and agricultural work for them. Their main duties were to oversee the servants and slaves, making sure that they were performing the tasks needed to
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In colonial times women were expected to be married by the age of 20, and were often put into arranged marriages. Widowed women if wealthy could own their own businesses, buy their own land, and create their own wills. They could take the place of their deceased husband, and in one rare case a woman was even allowed to vote in place of her spouse. If the woman was widowed and was considered “middle class or poor” they often took on the jobs of servants and worked on farms and in houses to earn a living. It was uncommon to have a single woman, and many people deemed unmarried woman “unnatural and called (them) “spinsters” or “thornbacks”,” (landofthebrave.info). Which allows a glimpse into the views of the people in colonial times, because women were considered inferior to the men, it was odd to see one attempting