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Britain in the 19th century was a patriarchal society and the dominant idea was that there are irrefutable natural differences between genders. Therefore, males, who occupied the dominant positions, were born for business, finance, and politics, while women were expected to marry, manage the family, and take care of the children. It seems that females in that period were thought to be miserable, tragic, and wretched and did not have suffrage rights, the right to sue, or the right to own property. Their inferior jobs such as babysitter or textile worker were barely enough to survive on. Worse still, most working women were employed in the unskilled, unorganized, service jobs and were paid a lower salary. Some of them were even required to become prostitutes out of desperation. Later, females entered some male dominated industries, but they only got one third of a man’s salary. There were still a large amount of women who lived as housewives, like Mrs. Thorold was pretending to do in the novel. They merely managed the family or were considered decoration in the living room. Women’s social value and working rights were denied by men, who were the heads of society.…
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In the nineteenth century, the legal rights of women and men were highly affected by gender and race, both positively and negatively. In the book, “Kingdom of Matthias,” by Paul Johnson and Simon Wilentz, they describe the life of two females, Isabella Van Wagenen and Isabella Matthews Laisdell which whom were affected by slavery and high influences of higher power from men. In the nineteenth century it was believed that males were to support the family by working and earning a wage as a husband was to provide for his wife and a father to provide for his children (Fahs 1/5). Also, during the nineteenth century women were seen to be working in homes and supporting their husbands by cleaning the home, raising the children, and cooking meals (Fahs 1/5). Furthermore, the dominant notion of marriage can be described as a paternal decline for as time progressed many young men realized they could not inherit the farm which coincided with the fact that young women would only inherit a small dowry resulting in a change of how marriage was based on affection instead of parental influence (LEB 222). However, the notion of motherhood had changed overtime with less childbearing as they were planned which allowed more attention to the children allowing them to move to middle-class. The nineteenth century explores many areas of society that are affected by people’s gender and race whom are brought together by religious beliefs, families, and friendships.…
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The mid-19th century was still a time ruled by men. Women were supposed to be submissive to their husbands and other men in their lives. In 1890, a woman named Florence Fenwick Miller gave a speech to the National Liberal Club. Here, she said, “Under exclusively man-made laws women have been reduced to the most abject condition of legal slavery in which it is possible for human beings to be held...under the arbitrary domination of another’s will, and dependent for decent treatment exclusively on the goodness of heart of the individual master.”…
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Women in the Victorian period fell under patriarchy's social roles more than any time in history. It had been usual for women to work alongside husbands and brothers in the family business in earlier centuries. But as the 19th century progressed, men started working in the factories and shops, while women were left at home all day to and giving them the role of being the angel of the house.…
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In the 19th century, discrimination played a big role in society. Specifically, women could not vote or hold office in any state, they had no access to higher education, they were excluded from professional occupations, and they had no legal identity apart from their husbands. Until the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870, a husband and wife were considered one under the law, meaning a husband had complete legal control over his wife. However, the Women’s Suffrage Movement was a key turning point in the fight for women’s rights. Women fought back for decades, demanding suffrage, or the right to vote.…
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Robinson describes how a widow is able to be left without the “share of her husband’s property” and a father could also write out “his will without reference to his daughter’s share of the inheritance” (Robinson, Loom and Spindle 7). Men could also just claim women as their wife “wherever he found her, and also the children she was trying to shield from his influence” which does not give a woman a say if they do want to get married to the man, which then led to them “depriving his wife of all her wages, month after month,” in other words they could get married and the women just not get payed for the work that they do because the man would just take it for himself (Robinson, Loom and Spindle 7). Lastly, society considered women as a “ward, an appendage, a relict” so if a woman did not choose to marry or become a widow after separating or losing her husband “she had no choice but to enter one of the few employments that were open to her, or to become a burden on the charity of some relative” (Robinson, Loom and Spindle 8). In the end women were often unwelcome to society, and lead joyless unsatisfied lives, but the cotton-factory was great for women, because they were able to earn money, and are able to spend for themselves and could satisfy their desires without…
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Women were responsible for child rearing and maintaining the homestead whilst their husbands were performing their agricultural or political duties. From a legal standpoint, women who were married had their status changed dramatically once their nuptials had commenced. The law utilized the term 'coverture ' to describe a married woman’s existence. The courts recognized women as falling under the umbrella of a man’s assets. Quite literally this meant that women, by taking a husband, consigned their free will to the rest of the family, retaining for themselves only whatever influence the male of the household permitted them to keep. This social and legal position provided the groundwork for women to slowly find their position unacceptable. The advancement of status could be more accurately described as a suggestion more than a demand as the social stigma of being a rebelliousness woman was considered to be in bad taste. For this reason the movement from draconian rule within the genders to a status of equality was a slow, but consistent…
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* Victorian views on morality and culture coupled with need to make decisions about mountain of domestic products had subtle but important effect on middle class expectations about women’s roles at…
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To this day, religion is still predominantly patriarchal. There have been, however, exceptions in certain denominations. During American colonial times, women could not even join the church. It was not until over a hundred years after colonization that women could begin the religious candidacy process. Fortunately, as new deities were created, women were given more and more opportunities to exemplify what they had to say for the first time in years. A majority of New Light churches required both male and female candidates to publicly declare their faith before they were fully welcomed by the church. Having the ability to declare their faith without male consent was another larger step in breaking gender roles. Even though women rarely spoke in public, the majority of them still chose to share their stories and express themselves in front of everyone, instead of requesting a minister to read their thoughts for them.…
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In Colonial America women had their place in society cut out for them. Single women were addressed as “Women Alone” and these women had the legal right to buy real estate, have stocks and bonds, and write wills. Unmarried women were to be married by 20 if they weren’t they were considered unusual and were called thornbacks. Women who inherited money had their own business printers, and shops. Marriage really affected women’s status during this time. There were rules on how a wife was to be around her husband:…
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Women’s inheritance rights were restricted to small personal items and could not include any assets such as land. Once again, any wealth a woman had on her own was forfeited to her husband at marriage (“A Brief”). These laws made women dependent on men which meant that in the rare case of a divorce, women were left with nothing. This forced many women to remain in abusive…
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In the early 1800s, women from different races and classes have had to fight for the rights that the modern women now possess through rigorous battles against an unfair patriarchy.…
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Around the late 1840's females had enough with the lack of power that was given to them since they were born. Many females around this time played housewife and took care of the children and the husband needs. Most if not all were unable to go to school and were left with a limited amount of jobs. Because there were no laws to give or protect the unalienable rights their females should have been born with it left them to completely depend on their men. It was no one way out of this dependent lifestyle. If she did get a job her wages were taken from her along with any land she inherited. Finally in case of separation the children was sent with their father ; evidently because they were his dependent to.…
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The Colonial Era was an interesting time for women. They were starting to believe they deserve more rights than they were given. Some might say it was a golden age for them, and then others would disagree. In the 5 articles; “Women in Work and Poverty: The Difficulties of Earning a Living” by Lyle Koehler, “The Planters Wife: The Experiment of White Women in Seventeenth-Century Maryland” by Lois Green Carr and Lorena S. Walsh, “Women Before the Bar” by Cornelia Hughes Dayton, “Gender, Work and Wages in Colonia New England” by Gloria L. Main, and “The Myth of the Golden Age” by Mary Beth Norton, they talk about whether women became more liberated during this time, or if it was a fabrication.…
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The Victorian era in England gave birth to the first real industrial society the world had ever seen. With the rise of industry came large cities, an expanded working class population and the rapid rise of imperialism. Although England was progressing towards a more powerful place in the world, its citizens seemed to be drifting in the opposite direction. Oppressive laws and working conditions set clear boundaries between classes in England. The most oppressive social and state laws were those regarding to marriages and divorces. Just as the people of England felt trapped in the unequal social structure of England, the same is true for those trapped in unwanted marital relations. Marriages were regulated by society and the government, therefore, making them more of a materialistic union than a holy or spiritual one. The marriages in Hard Times represent “industrial society” in England during the Victorian era and portray a separation of society from religion.…
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