How Were Women Treated In The Late 1800's

Women in the late 1800’s were treated as second class citizens through the standards of equality, expectations, and usefulness. Freedom for women has been a long and tedious fight, but has had some success overtime. Women are still not treated as completely equal to men, but hopefully someday that will change.

Women were treated as inferior to men and were not given the same equality that men were. Women did not have the right to vote. All men could vote at the time, even the different races. In 1896 there were only 4 states that would allow women the right to vote at the time. The four states that would allow this at the time were Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah. It wasn’t until 1920 that all women were given the right to vote after
Women were expected to stay home and do chores while their husbands went to work during the day. Women were not allowed to have a professional career or leave the house very often. Although around 1880 the number the number of women joining the workforce highly increased. Women started organizing group and rallying for equal pay and equal right. They believed that they should receive the same benefits that the men did for their work. The women were expected to take care of the children while the men worked. The women were expected to teach the children at home and give them a basic education with math and English. Another expectation of women were that they were supposed to find a husband and provide him with children. She was expected to provide children to carry on the family name and use them as workers until they were old enough to live on their own. If the women did not meet the expectations of giving their husband children, then they were usually divorced and left to make it on their own. Women would have to work hard every day in order to meet all of their expectations and were forgot about if they couldn’t meet
If a woman was not useful in providing children for her husband, then she was abandoned and had to find a way to make a living for herself. A woman had to be able to do all her chores at home and be able to provide her children with an education. If she was not able to, then she was seen as useless and laughed at. Many women who could not do what they were expected were never married and lived their lives as servants or maids. Very few of these women were lucky enough to find a man that did not care about her not being able to perform these expected tasks and marry