Social Status In The 18th Century Essay

The city of Rio de Janeiro in the 18th century had a very complex social structure. Further complicating the system was the degree of social mobility available to certain citizens (Karasch: 67). While a number of factors combined to determine status in Rio de Janeiro the three largest determinants were ancestry, race and gender. The influence these three factors had on a citizen’s social status in the 18th century and the subsequent opportunities made available to them through their status will be the focus of this paper. Ancestry was one of the most important factors when determining social status in 18th century Rio de Janeiro however there were many different facets to how ancestry impacted status. According to Mary Karasch, the families

A quality that guaranteed a place at the top of the metaphorical social pyramid was male gender; a white male of good ancestry in Rio de Janeiro held the highest status and subsequently had the most opportunities available to them (Karasch: 68). Women on the other hand faced more obstacles, and their status was tied most closely to that of their husbands (Karasch: 71). This in turn meant that a certain degree of social mobility was possible for women assuming they married well (Karasch: 71). High status for women looked different than it did for men, predominantly high status women had control of their houses but rarely ever left them unless to go to mass (Karasch: 70). While for men their status helped them to get respectable occupations, women of high status held no occupation. Elite women were a minority; the majority of women were of low-status and worked as midwives, nuns, teachers and domestic servants (Graham: 5). In this sense, it can be gathered that the amount of work performed acted as a determinant of a woman’s status, the harder she worked the lower status she was