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European Women Identity Analysis

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Everyone has at least one identity or characteristic in which they identify. Identities can aid someone by allowing them to have more opportunities in life, while other identities can limit them. Some common identities that can significantly affect the opportunities and options in one 's life are gender, race, and religion. Throughout history, society has seen certain identities as more desirable than others. In European history, society had certain expectations of citizens and would systematically oppress those that did not fit into the mold of the perfect citizen. One identity that was particularly oppressed and expected to be a certain way were women. European society attempted to mold women into the ideal one by systematically pressuring …show more content…

Society expected women to be married, which affected the possible paths a woman could take in her life. The opportunities and freedoms of married women were different than those of a woman who was single. A single woman could own property and work, as opposed to a married woman whose property belonged to her husband and whose job was to take care of the household (Coursepack, 72). However, the jobs and professions available to women were not exactly desirable and also did not provide enough income to support oneself. An unmarried woman may have the freedom to choose her job, but the available opportunities paid less and were of lower status than the jobs available to men. Barbara Leigh-Smith discussed that women were "occasionally governors of prisons for women, overseers of the poor, and parish clerks," which were not of much prestige or significant pay (Coursepack, …show more content…

The private sphere was the home and household, meaning a married woman would spend her married life ensuring the household was ran smoothly. One duty of a woman in the private sphere was having children. Jean-Jacques Rosseau referred to child bearing as a woman 's "proper business" in Emile, or Education (Coursepack, 53). A woman would also have to keep the house clean while also keeping herself clean enough to not revolt her husband (Coursepack, 56). A wife was expected to be selfless and take care of the household by putting the family 's needs ahead of her

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The societal and political atmosphere for women was severely limited; women were expected to be homemakers and were frowned upon for working outside of the home if they were married1. They could

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Married women no longer just tended to the children, they also worked from home weaving cloth and fastening buttons.5 (Endnote from Slater Book) Since the land was cheap, everyone wanted to own a farm, not work in the factory.6 (Textile Factories) Married men usually farmed, but not all men had the option to farm. Some would help their wives weave cloth, while others were mechanics in the factory.7 (Slater Book) Children and young women were the ideal choice for factory labor; women could work a few years before getting married.8 (textile

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In the seventeenth century Chesapeake women had different roles than other colonial women. Chesapeake women were expected to work in the house, raise their kids and work with their husbands in the “tedious care of tobacco plants.” (page 13) Unlike in the English society, they lacked a sense of “housewifery” due to the fact that they had the lack of spinning wheels and churns. (page 13) Since mortality rate was so high it was excepted of not just men but especially women to marry multiply time.

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Women play a vital role for the human population. Although women populate the earth with humans, women have little rights. During the 1500s and twentieth century, women had little rights in labor and productivity. Women often resided as housewives; caring for children, cooking and cleaning. Often, females did not receive proper education and forced to work in unsafe and sanitary working conditions, such as sweat factories or field work.

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The stereotypical view of women is that they should have multiple children, clean, cook, and be obedient. Women had no authority or independence, women who were married couldn’t own property, or work unless given permission from their

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Boydston writes, “But if middle-class women were encased in the image of the nurturant (and non laboring) mother, working-class women found that their visible inability to replicate that model worked equally hard against them.” The standard during the Antebellum period was a woman that didn’t do any kind of laborious task other than housework which was thought as being an enriching and awarding process. However, wage-earning women visibly were unable to live up to these new standards because they were forced out of their own gender sphere of domesticity just to find work. During the Antebellum period, it was believed to be a men’s sphere to work and men masculinity was based on the fact of being the main “breadwinner” for the family. By a woman going into this sphere they went against the formation of the two gender spheres.

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Essentially, marriage in the 1700’s was seen merely as a means of birthing heirs and finding a way to financially support yourself, so it resulted in both men and women being devalued. It is universally known that women were often treated as inept and helpless rather than sophisticated people with autonomy and capabilities. In fact, during this time, “married women were consistently compared with minor children and the insane-- both categories of people considered incapable of caring for themselves. To marry a woman was, in one sense, to ‘adopt’ her-- or at least to adopt responsibility for all the circumstances of life with which she entered the marriage” (Teachman 39). Furthermore, when women got married, they would legally cease to exist.

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Many Women had to work before getting married. Women were working and gaining more money for there families. But once married they stop working and at least every middle class family had a maid. Maid were people who were in the lower class. As many

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Women in the 1600s to the 1800s were very harshly treated. They were seen as objects rather than people. They were stay-at-home women because people didn’t trust them to hold jobs. They were seen as little or weak. Women living in this time period had to have their fathers choose their husbands.

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Woman have a voice, choices to work or have children. Not have to do all the housework because it is “woman’s work.” Marriage to me is more of a marriage then in the past. Coontz stated, “The turning point that took place in Seventeenth century a distinctive marriage system had taken root in Western Europe, with a combination of features that together not only made it different from marriage anywhere else in the world but also made It a very rapid transformation. Strict divorce laws made it difficult to end a marriage, but this was coupled with more individual freedom to choose or refuse a partner.

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Women in the Victorian Era were believed to be the “ideal of character”, and they were considered to be “sweet, innocent, fragile, and docile,” ; the complete opposite of a man. Marriage was one of the most significant points of a women’s life. However, the rights of a married woman was similar to the rights of a child; they could not own property, vote, or sue. Women lost the rights to own property they brought into the marriage, even following divorce. The husband had complete legal control over any income earned by his wife, meaning women were not allowed to open banking accounts, and a married woman was not able to arrange a contract without her husband's legal approval.

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