Sybil Ludington: The Changing Role Of Women In France

Sybil Ludington became famous for her ride to warn the Patriot militia of the British coming, similar to that of Paul Revere, but Sybil was only 16 years old. She completed her mission around daybreak of the night of April 26, 1777 at 9 pm, covering nearly 40 miles—more than twice what Paul Revere had ridden—raising 400 men, and even fighting off a highway man with her father 's musket. The militia caught up with the retreating British and beat them back, too late to stop the attack, but not too late to make them pay dearly. Sybil received personal thanks from both Gen. George Washington and Gen. Rochambeau, the French commander fighting with the Americans. Sybil’s story in America’s founding history, shows the qualities of patriotism, freedom, and youthful energy. The details of Sybils story “thus links this country’s capitalist enterprise with a seminal period that has personified the country and its peoples character.”

McMillan, the traditional role of women in the French society involves heavy domestic duties such as housekeeping, preparation of meals, child baring, harvesting crops, and tending to the farm animals. Upon the onset of the Industrial Revolution in France, women 's role changed with them becoming domestic helpers, factory workers, and washerwomen. This did not generally include women who had "bourgeois" status, because these women often became dependent on the financial support of their husbands; such women of upper-class status also had the tendency to send their own "children to wet nurses until" weaned. Further changes to the status of women in France became apparent in 1944, when French women gained the right to vote. From my own knowledge it was only during the 1960s when they won the right to work without getting permission from their husbands, in addition to the right to open personal bank