American Women In The 18th Century Essay

Women in the eighteenth century

For thousands of years women's status and representation was oppressive and restrictive, in the beginning of the eighteenth century they were still under a patriarchal system and women were forced to remained silence. Women didn't have the right to protest or express themselves as they wanted to. However, after the Reformation in England there were a lot of changes in the British society. The beginning of a French intellectual and cultural movement "le Siècle des Lumières " or The Enlightenment during the eighteenth century led to many discoveries and inventions in European countries and in America which led to the improvement of farming methods (as the four-field system or selective breeding) and new technologies turns
into an industrial and agricultural revolution, but most importantly those events led to reforms and improve the society through the advancement of knowledge and education.

During the eighteenth century, many wealthy women followed the new intellectual movement and started to gather in a house to discuss the latest cultural trends, literature, politics, art or philosophy.
Charity schools were founded in many English towns in the eighteenth century, rich and middle-class children were sent to school but only boys went to grammar schooled. Rich girls were tutored or were sent to boarding schools. These girls were often taught writing, music, and needlework rather than the academic subjects. Women started to talk about their situation, female artists and scientists started to emerge during this century like Catharine Macaulay (a historian known for The History of England from the Accession of James I to the Revolution.), Mary Wollstonecraft (an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's right, she's best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman she is considered as one of the first feminists), Jane Austen (an English novelist known primarily for Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice), Mary Moser (an English painter, one of the most celebrated women artists of 18th-century.she was one of the female founding members of the Royal
Academy.)

Being a woman in the eighteenth-century was difficult and securing your family's offspring was almost impossible. At this time being pregnant was difficult and hazardous, if you were pregnant, you or your baby's life were uncertain because women often died while giving birth and infant mortality was high (75 percent of children died before 5).

The poor lived in tiny houses with only one room for the entire family and their furniture was simple. Even if the improvement in agricultural methods was effective the eating habits of the poor didn't change a lot and bread was the main food but unfortunately meat was a luxury that they can't afford. Women were more likely to be a servant in a rich family house or a farmer before the industrial revolution, but with the new economic context women had to diversify their options and worked as prostitutes, coal miners, in spinning cloth factory or in their husband shop.