What Beliefs Were Formed About Women During The 19th Century

What beliefs were formed about women during the nineteenth century? Throughout the time humans have inhabited the Earth, different beliefs have emerged around the topic of women. Up until recent times, women were seen as inferior to men and were treated as if they were less. Since women weren’t seen as equals, they weren’t viewed in the same way as men and were therefore treated much differently. In the nineteenth century, many women were diagnosed with hysteria, went through the process of the rest cure and they weren’t seen as equals.

In the nineteenth century, many women were diagnosed with what was known as hysteria, which had both physical and mental symptoms. Firstly, hysteria was diagnosed to a selective group of people. Those who
5) . It was believed that the cause of hysteria was due to the changing modern life which became more industrial (Beck, “The Disease of Living Too Fast” par. 12). The modern life brought many factors that people weren’t used to, such as constantly working. In addition, at the time, people thought that the body was run by “nervous energy” and too much of this energy was being taken away from the new lifestyle that American’s were living (Beck, “The Disease of Living Too Fast” par. 4). Furthermore, those who were diagnosed with hysteria had symptoms of anxiety, headaches, depression, lack of sleep and irritation (Stiles, “Go Rest, Young Man” par.3). In essence, it was an illness that was diagnosed due to being unsettled and miserable with life, as described by Schuster, “If you were feeling good and healthy,
Firstly, women and men had very different roles as “the ‘separate spheres’ maintained that [the] woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, and morality while man’s sphere was the public world-- economic striving, political maneuvering, and social competition.” (Graham, “Women In Nineteenth-Century America” par. 5). Since women had different roles in life than men, they were easily manipulated when trying to come up with a cure for hysteria. For example, people used this to their benefit when coming up with causes of hysteria by saying women would fall ill if they broke their traditional gender roles (Beck, “The Disease of Living Too Fast” par.18). It was said that if “women… were too socially active, or spent too much time outside the home,” they’d be prone to neurasthenia (Beck, “The Disease of Living Too Fast” par. 18). This assisted in ensuring traditional gender roles would stay in check, so that females ruled the domain within the house, and males controlled the economy. In a way, this diagnosis implied that in order for women to be healthy, they had to obey men (Science Museum, “Rest Cure” par. 3). Furthermore, the treatment of hysteria was used to frighten women away from education (Taylor, “Death of neurasthenia and its psychological reincarnation” par. 8). At the time, it was believed that “educat[ing] women