Gender Politics In The 19th Century

Stewart, Chuck. "gender politics." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

Before the 19th century, women were treated poorly throughout most of the world. In most countries women could not vote, hold property, divorce, or hold a job outside the family, and the law treated them as property of their husband. Upon the death of their husband, they often became destitute or had to marry a relative. The early 19th century saw the beginnings of the modern women's movement in England and the United States. The first Women's Rights Convention was held at Seneca Falls on July 19–20, 1848. The convention was the brainchild of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martha C. Wright, May Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt. Except for Stanton,

As men cultivated careers away from the home, wives became the administrators of all things domestic: household design, standards of cleanliness, clothing purchases, religious and moral guides, and models of decorum. Catharine Beecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841) became the middle-class guide to all aspects of proper domestic life.

Campbell, James. "Southern white women's labor during Reconstruction." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

The 19th century was a time of profound changes for American women's labor and leisure. Prior to the Civil War, many Northern women had begun to teach school, work in urban textile factories, or take advantage of ready-made cotton cloth, but it was only after the Civil War that Southern white women's labors began to be similarly transformed. The profound losses of the war, coupled with the emancipation of African American slaves upon whose labor the planters had built their lavish lifestyle, meant that many elite women now had to undertake household chores for themselves. Instead of managing food production and overseeing household slaves, many elite and yeoman women now had to tackle cooking and cleaning. Cornelia Spencer, a young Southern woman, acknowledged that due to the war and emancipation, many "delicate" women who had been raised in affluent circles now had to work for a living, and in June 1875, the New Orleans Picayune published a series of articles on the rising number of women now working not just inside their home but also outside the home for