Preview

Dbq Womens Rights Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
899 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dbq Womens Rights Essay Example
DBQ
The United States has gained a reputation of equality and social democracy. Religious tolerance and freedom of speech were rights that were said to be revolutionary. However, an entire section of the population was excluded from these promises of social and economic improvement—women. After the American Revolution, “republican motherhood,” the idea that women were responsible for guarding the nation’s values and passing them on to the countries youth, had taken hold in American society. The “cult of domesticity” was developed to only allow woman to influence their children at home. While “republican motherhood” and the “cult of domesticity” were embraced by most people as the ideal of American womanhood, these goals were not achievable by all women. Through the years from 1776 and the outbreak of the Civil War, women’s roles changed immensely. In this DBQ it shows three years where the roles of the women changed most drastically. From 1776 to 1837, 1838 to 1853, and 1854 until 1863. The first Great Awakening and other religious movements often gave women a greater sense of equality within the church. However, because women were some of the most faithful members of the religious movements, they were often regarded morally superior to men. This moral supremacy led to society’s view that women were responsible for safeguarding the country’s values. However, at the same time Old World beliefs that man were more intelligent than woman, restrained women from government and economic employment. The “cult of domesticity” believed that woman should stay at home at educate the children. As a result, teaching was a profession dominated by females. This caused the ideas of the “republican motherhood” and the “cult of domesticity” to be further engrained into society. We see this in documents A, B and C. In document A it is talking about a poor woman from Philadelphia, who gives up everything for her family. She hasn’t but any non essentials and is now

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Despite the growth of industry, urban centers, and immigration, America in the 19th century was still very rural. The “Cult of Domesticity” first named and identified in the early part of the century, the beliefs embodied in this “cult” gave women a central role in the family. Women’s god given role, it stated was a wife and mother. Pulling against these “beliefs” was the sense of urgency, movement, and progress in the industrial and political changes affecting the country. Women could not help but see themselves in this growth. Women wanted new options, jobs, education and more. Not many women pursued their dream though because many had little to no support, but that difficulty didn’t stop some women from pursuing their goals. Rosa Cassettari and Luna Kellie were two of the women from the same era that decided to pursue the wishes in order to have a better and prosperous life and be able to provide for their families as best as they could. These two women were great examples of how hard but not impossible it was to gain their own freedom and rights aside of what society believed a women’s role was. Even though the faced many hardships and obstacles these two women found the courage to overcome all the…

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Women had their choices restricted prior to the civil war. They were expected to keep busy at home, church, and to avoid heavy labor, business, and politics. In the text “Breaking Traditions” the author, Kathleen Ernst, does not support the claim that the war transformed women's lives.…

    • 244 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Susanna Rowson and Judith Sargent Murray saw women’s roles in the early United States similar. In the 1700s women had a basic education of reading and writing and most were trained to become mothers and house wives. Women’s job was to take care of the children at home, cook, clean, and do housework;…

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States woman between 1776 and the 1860’s varied greatly in the ways they went about achieving the ideals of their time. Both sought to better themselves and their families for the over-all betterment of their nation, but neither went about it in quite the same manner as the other. Also race was becoming less of a social barrier than it had been in the 1770’s, which is not to say, however, that it was not a significant stopping power at the time for non-whites and many immigrants from Europe, especially the women. The ideals were similar, but the ways of achieving them were very different in the 1860’s than in the 1770’s, and much more innovative for women’s status in society outside of the homestead. (Doc. C)…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Women have sought out equality and its benefits for the longest of time. Their desire to own themselves and control the world’s perspective of women has been motivation throughout decades. Looking back as far as 1865, Women have always worked hard to care for the family even while they stood behind the man. Women used their skills to manage the home by bringing income in through making and selling clothing. There was a time when it was unacceptable for a woman’s shoulders to be bare in public, and unheard of to be seen with their belly visible. Sex without marriage was obscene as was the option of having sex with preventive methods. And they eventually won the battle of who can and cannot vote. Women struggled against men for and objective females for the right to enlist in the military. Abortion was brought to existence to protect women from birthing unwillingly. The world experienced several acts and rights to ensure women gained equality. Women tackled the world for women related changes drastically since 1865 and do not plan to back down. This paper defines that women have fought for equality in employment, fashion, voting, military choice, and even birth options; they achieved such rights through feminist acts like the women’s liberation movement and they will forever expect rightful equality.…

    • 2680 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women back then were treated like subordinates. Traditionally, their only role was to marry, bare children, stay home and take care of the family. They had no say to political views. Women raise their sons to be a future leader. However, since the Second Great Awakening and after the American Civil War, women became more outspoken, opinionated and even took some of the men’s role at their home since most men never returned home from the war. Women started to see other possibilities. They worked outside their homes; they became great workers and teachers. Most of these women created a movement for women’s rights and they spurred a great wave of social reform. The potential for religious, political and social influence in women was…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Her arguments allow us to examine the purpose of women’s education within this period differently. Similarly, secondary sources discussing American history outside of this period address major themes of women engaging inside and outside of the domestic sphere. In Amy Kaplan’s Manifest Domesticity, she focuses on the female influence within the home and the abilities of women to create…

    • 1571 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cracks in the Mold

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The mid twentieth century proved to be a compelling, interesting time for the United States and an era that changed the World. The Civil Rights movement brought the end to de jure segregation and racism and this incredible grassroots movement served as a foundational model for other groups to mock and seek their own liberation. The 1960s spurned movements not only for African Americans, but also for the LGBT community and women. With the emergence of America as a media savvy economic powerhouse post the World Wars, a tide sort of changed within the community of women. According to Sara Evans in the selection “Cracks in the Mold,” women in the 1950s recognized they were somewhat limited to performing the dutiful tasks of motherhood, but many were outright no longer finding fulfillment in such rolls (176). Evans describes the complexities of sexism in the United States’ culture while also she explains that both a conservative female push and a more radical feminist movement helped shape the legislation and attitude changes permeating through twentieth century America.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The role of women in American society changed from the traditional homemaker to modern-day breadwinners owing to the outcomes of various events that occurred from the end of the Civil War in 1865. However, this paper will analyze and discuss the various events such as suffrage, the professional barrier held by the male counterparts, and societal discrimination. In addition, the enactment of State laws that illegalized wife battery, equal payment, in addition to the decision by the Supreme Court to allow Belva Lockwood to be the first women to testify before it in 1879. These events formed the basis of the significant events that shaped the make-up of the modern women since 1985.…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Howard Zinn

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This book explains the history of America starting from 1492 until the present. The history is told from the common people’s point of view. During my presentation I summarized chapters six through ten. Chapter six was titled “The Intimately Oppressed” and it refers to the inequalities in the lives of women during and after the revolution. Even though African American women had it the hardest, he referred to more women such as Caucasian, Native American and European women. African American women did more hard labor and were often sexually abused. In the early years women were used primarily as sex slaves, child bearers and companions. Anne Hutchinson was a good speaker and held meetings that many women and a few men attended. She ended up being banished from her colony because the government felt that she was challenging their authority and the church for heresy. A woman’s job during this era was to maintain religion, cook, clean and anything else that involved house duties or tending to their husband or children.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Constitution adopted in 1787 compromised many changes adopted during the revolution and implemented very strict limits to women’s social advancement. For instance, the cult of domesticity is still widely spread and prevails within America’s society (McKethan Lucinda). This cult of domesticity or “cult of true womanhood” restrained the sphere of influence to home and family and even after the Revolution the “husband retained a proprietary claim to his wife’s domestic work” (…) even for the middle class, the cult of domesticity concealed the fact the fact that home was, in fact a place of labor” (Foner Eric p.73). In addition, civil rights improvements were almost inconsequential: women had not voting right and still had to vow obedience to their husband. The concept of obedience has been strongly challenged by “early feminist insisted, women deserved the autonomy and range of individual choices, the possibility of self-realization, that constituted the essence of freedom” (Foner Eric, p.80) After the war, women experienced fewer benefits of freedoms for instance they still had no voting right except in New-Jersey were they have been able to vote from 1776 to 1807 (pbs.org). In the 1830s, the pioneers Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina were among the first to establish linkage between abolitionism and women’s right. They were active member of the women’s suffrage movements and joined other organizations like the Quaker or the Philadelphia Women’s Anti-Slavery Society (nwhm.org). It’s only in the last part of the nineteen-century that some States granted to right to vote for women starting in 1869 with the territory of…

    • 1667 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women's Rights Dbq Essay

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the 18th to 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, gender equality rights were harsh making it difficult to work in the textile mills. Factories required Women and young children to take on the roles as mill workers to help the families to survive. While men were out in the fields working, women worked harder in the factories making much less than the men. Women worked longer days, starting from before sunrise to past sundown then most men. In addition, women worked in factories with dangerous machines, rats, and overall filthy working conditions. As a result, the female mill workers in America and England shared experiences of inequality due to the amount of money they made, the horrible conditions they had to work in, and their family life.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1800’s women’s work exhausting, difficult the society was unappreciative. Women who couldn’t afford slaves to help were put permanently on household duties. Women would cook, clean, make clothing, take care of domestic animals, hunt, fish, and protect their family. There was a lot of work to be done as a colonial woman, especially since most had more than 8 kids to take care of. The wife of a family was an essential component. Without a strong and productive wife a family would struggle just to survive. Yet even though women had worked extremely hard day in and day out to ensure care of their family they were not allowed to speak among men, could not vote, and could not take part in government decisions.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The “Cult of True Womanhood/Domesticity” was a value system which prevailed in the upper/middle class women of the antebellum US, emphasising their role within the home as providing a safe and virtuous household as well as managing family dynamics and work life. Society believed women should posses the four cardinal virtues which encompassed piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. Significance in this showed the societal trend of placing all of the moral and ethical pressure onto the women, making the assumption that men lack self-control and are incapable of maintaining virtue if the women do not follow the parameters of the “cardinal virtues”, further emphasising a rather patriarchal and suppressive society towards women during the…

    • 116 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays