Summary Of American History Thru Women's Eyes By Ellen Dubois

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According to Ellen Carol DuBois in "American History thru Women's Eyes", life for women varied in late 1800s, because they were so diverse and they faced different challenges such as discrimination based on ethnicity, economic challenges, and also poverty. A woman's life experience also varied based on the reasoning why the family or the woman chose to move to the west. Life as a native woman, as a woman settling "family west" and a woman settling "wild west" differed. DuBois referenced these two types of processes in which western land was to be consolidated as a part of the American nation. The "wild west" and the "family west" (DuBois, page 346). The goal was to domesticate the west for economic gains and capitalism. As a result, many …show more content…

DuBois referenced one of the most famous Native victories during the Battle of Little Big Horn that occurred during the year of 1876 in Montana. During this battle, the Lakota Sioux Warriors defeated the U.S. Seventh Calvary led by George A. Custer (DuBois, page 346). As a result, many Native women in the west started to step up and take on roles that men would normally engage in. Dubois mentioned a female Lieutenant named Lozen she, was a part of a Native resistance group called the Warm Springs Apache. These types of groups were formed as a result of white settler pushing Native out of their land and they were often referred to as "hostiles". Lozen helped her people evade and attack the U.S. Army for nearly a decade (DuBois 346). Lozen was never married and never had a family of her own, yet she displayed …show more content…

they had many reason but according to DuBois many were poor and they did not have many opportunities in their own countries. They believed that "America was the land where you could get rich" as stated, an immigrant by Pauline Newman from Lithuania (DuBois, page 356). Not only that but it was a land of opportunities for women. DuBois stated that "The United States was developing into a society that welcomed independence for women (Dubois, page 356). However, the new immigrant experience was much different for these women, it was not an easy one. The journey to America was not pleasant a pleasant one in itself. Dubois stated that the passengers slept in cramped and unhealthy living conditions below ships deck and they appeared dazed upon arrival (DuBois, page 358). They were screened before the were allowed entrance into the United States, if they were deemed unfit Dubois stated then they were deported back to their homeland (DuBois, page 350). Many were forced into prostitution and many legislation were put in place so that European women could not migrate into the US. DuBois stated that they were all assumed to be prostitutes and referenced the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited, Chinese women entrance unless they could prove that they were the wives or daughters of Chinese merchants already in the United States (DuBois, page 360). Even then these women were very fundamental and in the creation