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.