Women in Gilded Age

Women in Gilded Age 

The idea for this age was to create a maternal commonwealth. Upper-middle-class women of the late 19th century were not content with the cult of domesticity of the early 1800s. Many had become college educated and wanted to put their knowledge and skills to work for the public good.
One of the biggest changes in the late 19th century and the one which had the most impact on women lives was the growth of the cities. Most of the Urban life, created new problems and opportunities for both men and women. Women have already been trying to to find many ways to expand and better their lives. With urbanization going on, female spheres began to be included in evening out goings with their husbands. In most cases, as women became more visible in the social world, their behaviors were always under examination and resulted to find some mean between displaying class and status and demonstrating etiquette
Another way that women promoted the values of women's sphere into the public, was through the Settlement House Movement. A Settlement House Movement was a home where  immigrants could go when they had nowhere else to turn. Settlement houses provided family-style cooking, lessons in English, and tips on how to adapt to American culture.
In Born for Liberty by Sara Evans, Many educated women of the age felt that many of society's greatest disorders could be traced to alcohol. To their view, alcohol was leading to increased domestic violence and negligence. It is decreasing the families income that was being spent on necessities and promoted prostitution and adultery. 
As we can see through the readings, women are pushing ahead to perfect the politicls of influence, build organization of working women and bring together the republican claim of female citizenship with maternal commonwealth. Their main goal was to be as successful as men and have all the rights to be as equal as men. 

Women During 1845 - 1865

Women during 1845 - 1865 

During this period of time, men and women’s roles became more sharply defined than at any time in history. In earlier centuries it has always been usual for women to be working alongside their husbands and brothers in the family business. As the 19th century, women were slowly easing themselves to the society and breaking the spheres between men and women.  

According to Born for Liberty by Sara Evans, mentions that in 1848 New York passed a law granting married women all the control over property that they brought into marriage or received afterwards. During the 1840s the fur trade had virtually collapsed due to the overhunting demand. This led for women not being to cultivate crops because the men could not hunt. Women turned to needle work taught by missionaries and brought the traditional designs to crafts such as quilting.

One of the most important events during this time was women's rights movements. The main focuses are primarily concerned with making the political, social, and economic status of women equal to that of men and with establishing legislative safeguards against discrimination on the basis of gender. Women's rights movements have worked in support of these aims for more than two centuries. After doing some research, the first women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After 2 days of discussion and debate, 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which the rights for the women's rights movement. The twelve resolutions were adopted and called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women.

During this period of time, women finally got the chance to make a rule in the congress that allowed equal rights to everyone. For the longest time, women have always been put down and they've never got passed being a housewife. They were not allowed to get any education but during this time they changed that too. This period of time, women made a big movement that effected the future women's rights and equality. Also, the reading of the Evans text gave so many important facts that was going on during this period of time.

Women in Age of Association 1820 - 1845

Women in Age of Association 1820 - 1845

This weeks blog is going to focus on women during the 19th century. Female friendship in the 19th century were long lived, intimate, loving friendship between two women was the first type of this phenomena. No one really thought about or even written about this aspect of female relationship. Women consciously or unconsciously chose to ignore it. Most women during this century formed emotional ties with one another. These relationships ranged from the supportive love of sisters to sensual filled with emotion of love by mature women. In the 19th century openly lesbian women were thought to be mentally ill. Those admitted to insane asylums often faced forced marriages.

In Born For Liberty by Sara Evans, she focused on the aspect of education in women. During this era, the availability of educated young women grew suddenly. By 1840, 38% of white Americans between the ages of five and twenty attended school. By 1850 most white women were very liberate and well educated. Women gained confidence after being educated. They taught and engaged in social reforms outside their homes and participated in the second Great Awakening.

The second Great Awakening focused on distinctly feminizing religion to its followers. They preached universal salvation rather than predestination. This lead to the notion of female moral superiority receiving further reinforcement as the main ideals of femininity and Christianity appeared. In May 1834, females had their own book of religion  that was 400 chapters of American Female Moral Reform Society. The goal of this society was to eradicate prostitution that was a threat for moral fabric in society and vulnerability of the women. Catherine Beecher was one of the most important women in this era. Beecher wanted women to have moral superiority in their society. She refused to marry anyone and had no contradiction between advocacy of domesticity and marriage.

As you can see, women during this time gained power but yet lost some. For example, lesbian women were not very talked about or heard about during this time. if a women outright admitted her love to another women she was thought on being crazy and sent to asylums. On the other hand, women gained power in the move of education and second Great awakening. In the book Women In America,  the readings about the relationships between women was interesting to learn about. Both of the novels that I mentioned above, taught me a lot about  this era and seeing how women are slowly standing up for themselves is amazing.