The 19th century in America was a time of change, of development, and of war. There were many immigrants, and tension between the Northern and Southern states about many issues, one of them being slavery. There were also many different people groups inhabiting the country, among them the Native Americans, the African American slaves, the ‘White Americans’ and the immigrants, mainly Irish at that time. What roles did women play then? Were there similarities between the different groups then living in the United States? The following few pages will give an overview of the women of these different backgrounds, and give examples of their daily lives in the 19th century.
With the Manifest Destiny at the forefront of the ideals of the American leaders expanisonism played and important role of the political front. The three major themes that historian William E. Weeks noted about the Manifest Destiny were the following:
1. the virtue of the American people and their institutions;
2. the mission to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the U.S.; and
3. the destiny under God to do this work
The theme of virtue later transpired to American Exceptionalism that was traced to Puritan John Whitrop.
So to go back to the question what were the roles of women during the Manifest Destiny and beyond? How did the Manifest Destiny influence and affect women? What were some of the major contributions women played then?
Roles of women during the Manifest Destiny
As blog suite 101 put it:
Migrant women expanded not only American borders, but their own as well. Expansion and the concept of manifest destiny was the fever of the early nineteenth century, and women burned with it as surely as men. Many more women than would be imagined set out for the Western frontier with similar goals to those of men, to find fortune and a new start. While other women subscribed to the "cult of true womanhood," which valued domesticity, piety, and similar "feminine" virtues, women championed expansion for the cause of civilization, even while largely avoiding the masculine world of politics.
They were challenged by inadequate housing as well as an inadequate local social structure. It was up to them to establish a home for their families on the frontier, but they were also tasked with developing schools, churches, and other socially acceptable and expected programs. These types of challenges were usually met through women organizing women’s clubs, which were established as women arrived in what would become new frontier communities.
How did the Manifest Destiny influence women?
In the late 19th century, some reformers like Frances Willard with her temperance work and Jane Addams with her settlement house work relied on a separate spheres ideology to justify their public reform efforts, thus subtly both using and undermining the ideology. Both saw their work as "public housekeeping" -- a public expression of "women's work" of taking care of family and the home -- and both took that work into the realms of politics and the public social and cultural realm.
During the early history of the United States, a man virtually owned his wife and children as he did his material possessions. If a poor man chose to send his children to the poorhouse, the mother was legally defenseless to object. Some communities, however, modified the common law to allow women to act as lawyers in the courts, to sue for property, and to own property in their own names if their husbands agreed.
Equity law, which developed in England, emphasized the principle of equal rights rather than tradition. Equity law had a liberalizing effect upon the legal rights of women in the United States. For instance, a woman could sue her husband. Mississippi in 1839, followed by New York in 1848 and Massachusetts in 1854, passed laws allowing married women to own property separate from their husbands. In divorce law, however, generally the divorced husband kept legal control of both children and property.
For work in 19th century, however, acceptable occupations for working women were limited to factory labor or domestic work. Women were excluded from the professions, except for writing and teaching, which was another major influence of women.
Major Contributions of Women during the Manifest Destiny
What started as a wave of women entering the workforce, led to women finding their own political voice, and eventually uniting under a common cause. In the wake of the industrial age, many job opportunities became available for women. Inventions such as the telephone switchboard and the typewriter yielded millions of jobs. Middle class women, who had previously been confined to the chores of the household, were now working. This became the new face of women, out in the workforce and independent. The new image was glorified with the creation of the “Gibson Girl”, a magazine image that romanticized this new concept. These advancements did have their downside. Women were forc
"Anthony, as well as well as other suffragists, to begin the long battle that would be the right to vote. Though they never lived to see the day that women were given this right in 1920, their contribution would never be forgotten. She put a new spin on the fight for the right to vote. Florence Kellye led the Hull House in the fight for the anti-sweatshop law which protected women and children to work the same grueling hours as their male counterparts, but with lower wages. By 1890, the majority of the states in the US passed laws that allowed women to control their property after marriage. Barton raised money and sent supplies to the wounded soldiers. Independence in women was on a rise, especially in the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Critical organizations such as the American Red Cross were founded as well as centers to help assimilate immigrants into American society. As a result, black women, such as the journalist and teacher Ida B. At the Hull House she tried to help the new immigrant population acclimate to life in America. Another, much less conventional, temperance leader was Carrie A. Women such as Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were big names in American literature. Seeing the great advancements that Jane Addams made, Lillian Wald followed suit and opened her own settlement house called Lillian Wald"tms Henry Street Settlement House in New York in 1893. She turned away from the traditional ladylike view of women. "
Women over all made great strides during the Manifest Destiny and throughout the 19th century which would eventually lead into a era of new women's rights.
So questions:
Do you believe that the Manifest Destiny was a turning point for women's history
and
Was the Manifest Destiny and major expansionism changes an inspiration for the modern age of feminist?
work cited:
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