The Evolving Role of Women in U.S. History: Conflicting Messages

As American women's roles evolved over time, women were confronted with contradictory messages about their place in society. Traditional ideals about women met new challenges with each generation, from outside forces like war and economic depression, and from the activity of women themselves. This caused many women to struggle with societal expectations that did not fit their reality, and with an identity that did not fit expectations. Colonial society delegated to women the job of protecting and sustaining the morality of the people, yet it refused them a public forum in which to do so; the nineteenth century ideology of domesticity presented a standard of maternal care that could not be universally achieved; the twentieth century offered women the opportunity for education, independence, and a place in the labor force, but expected her to return to her proper place in the home after marriage.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, strict gender role segregation placed men in the turbulent public and political world, where it was necessary to be competitive, aggressive, and merciless, while the more delicate women were placed in the private sphere of the home, with the responsibility of guarding morality and spiritual integrity. For many women, this seemed an impossible contradiction. In the 1760s, women were exposed to Revolutionary ideas based in morality - justice, freedom, equality - yet they expressed feelings of guilt at becoming interested in such political subjects. The contradictory messages only increased as the Revolution progressed, as women were asked to contribute to the Revolutionary cause by boycotting British goods and producing homespun cloth, but were criticized when taking overtly political action like signing petitions. Women's contribution was welcome as long as it was hidden from public view. This conflict was partially resolved with the ideology of Republican motherhood. A generation of women that had been unavoidably exposed to political thought was provided with a socially acceptable outlet for their new interest. They were to use their experience to guide their husbands and sons to be good Republican citizens.

Republican motherhood was a temporary fix, but did not resolve the underlying contradiction in roles. In the nineteenth century, women increasingly felt the need for a public way to fulfill their moral obligations. They formed associations to combat prostitution, intemperance, and slavery, among other things. The subject matter fell within women's domain, but they were ridiculed when their methods became too visible, too political.

The development of a middle class morality in the nineteenth century provided a different contradiction for working class and non-white women. Middle class women had come to expect a new standard of domesticity. Men now worked outside the home, for wages, and women's place was inside the home. Her duties no longer included contributing to the income of the household, but focused on running that household properly, and on providing great attention and affection to the children. They were shocked by the conditions of the urban working classes, judged working class women by their middle class standards, and found them to be failures as wives and mothers - the defining roles of womanhood. While many working class men came to see Victorian domesticity as an ideal, and as a reflection of their success or failure as a provider, working class women could reconcile their lives to this model. They had to work in order to survive and they did not have the time to lavish attention on their children.

By the twentieth century, higher education for women was well established, and it was becoming increasingly common and acceptable for young women to work and live independently for a time before marriage. Meanwhile, the expectation remained that women would marry and settle back into their role as wife and mother. The Great Depression in the 1920s and World War II in the 1930s caused women to enter the workforce in unprecedented numbers, out of both necessity and opportunity. During the depression women became scapegoats for the shortage of male jobs, even though the gendered division of labor prevented them from competing for the same jobs, and discrimination against women in the workplace was prevalent. Women were needed for the war effort in the 1930s, but when the men came home from war, they expected women to vacate their positions, and return to happy domesticity. All this created a confusing and frustrating situation for women in the mid twentieth century. There were many college educated women, women with experience in skilled trades and professional careers, and women who had experienced economic independence who found that society did not desire their skills, and wished for them to stay home, make room for the men to reclaim the public sphere, and find fulfillment in their duties as wives and mothers. For several decades women struggled to reconcile themselves to this identity, but decisively broke away from it in the 1960s when they demanded full involvement in all aspects of society.

Throughout American history women have been presented with complicated demands on their role identification, and they have had to struggle to make sense out of the expectations of men, other women, and society at large. Each generation had to reconcile their individual reality to the contradictory messages that they received, and in doing so, they expanded women's roles, and presented new challenges for the next generation.