In the nineteenth century, when it came to the topic of gender, it was what some today would call “A man's world”. The women during that time were far from equal to men despite the attempts to come out on top. There were several supporters of women’s rights but on the other hand, there were people that disliked the new way of thinking. Two women in particular, Annie Besant and Ada Nield Chew, supported the movement and backed up the idea of women being equal. Under the umbrella of women’s rights, Besant and Chew wrote letters about the topic of wage and conduct towards factory working women. The connection between “The “White Slavery” of London Match Workers” and “A Living Wage for Factory Girls at Crewe” which is presented in the role that …show more content…
During every generation there is a major issue dealing with inequality. The problems have changed over time because the world, laws and ways of thinking have been altered. To truly understand why Besant & Chew were so moved by the rights of women, we have to take a step back and review the time era when women were oppressed. During the 19th century, some, as Professor and editor Kathryn Hughes explains in Gender roles in the 19th century, would describe the married people of this time’s relationship as “Separate spheres”(Hughes 1). The dynamic of men and women were as follows: women remained mostly in the household while men worked during the day. This was because the women were thought of as less than when being compared to men.The woman’s role was thought to be dependent and didn’t have as much …show more content…
Similarly, Besant and Chew, despite the uncommon points of view, they successfully displayed the secrets behind the toil of the factory labor. The two letters went in depth on the intensity of how faulty the factory work system was, including the conduct toward the employees and the wage given to them. In “The “White Slavery” of London Match Workers”, many facts on the wage of the Brant and May employees were given along with the harsh management they had to undergo. “Another, who carried out the instruction and lost a finger thereby, was left unsupported while she was helpless.”(1604) and “One of the delights of the frame work is the accidental firing of the matches: when this happens the worker loses the work, and if the frame is injured she is fined or sacked.”(1605) are just a few instances that Besant explains the female match staff having the short end of the stick. When it comes to Chew, her main concern was the ratio with the wage and the amount of labor given. She indicates that, “We eat, we sleep, we work, endlessly, ceaselessly work, from Monday morning till Saturday night, without remission”(1606) Chew and her co-workers served the Crewe factory, what it seemed like to Chew, constantly. The hard work wasn’t balancing with the pay they were receiving. She was desperate to get more free time to actually be free or be properly represented with a more sufficient
In the early 1800s, women were second-class citizens. Women were expected to restrict their area of interest to the home and the family. Women were not encouraged to have a real education or pursue a professional career. Also, women were considered unequal to their husbands and all males legally and socially. The day-to day lives of men and women were quite clearly divided during the late 1800s. Woman in the late 1800s were treated inhumane because of society, class, and their rights.
Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.
women had to stay at home to make household goods to use in the 1700s-1800s
The way European women were treated in the nineteenth century is very different than the way women are treated in the twentieth century today. Women in the nineteenth century were thought more of as objects or something to look at instead of people. Men were always superior to women. It is not the same in the United States during twentieth century as it was in Europe during the nineteenth century. Race and sexuality plays a huge role in the superiority of genders. By the end of the nineteenth century there were multiple challenges toward sending gender norms.
The 1800s served as a turning point for the role of women in society. Nearing the end of the century, the idea that women should not work outside the home began to be challenged, and women started to hold jobs of their own (Fischer et al., 2000). Great opportunity was given to unmarried women, as they gained independence in living apart from their families (Fischer et al., 2000). Women began to fight for their independence, opposing the idea of only being known as a housewife. Kate Chopin was among the individuals who challenged what the role of women in society was during the late 1800s. Chopin shares her perspective in her two short stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm.” In “The Story of an Hour,” the main
It was in the late 1890s that the citizens in Chicago, and other areas, felt it was a good idea to let women work. There was much demand for work in factories, because the heavy machinery we now use had not been invented at the time. The working conditions of the women in these factories were terrible. Many times, women were injured by the machinery used without compensation. As a result, in 1903, the National Women’s Trade Union
with this hackneyed life, others struggled to free themselves from it. Many not only fought for rights but against injustices their sex had sustained in previous centuries (Gay 172). The end of the nineteenth century saw an increased activism by women, who argued against their dominated position and for fundamental changes in laws (Gay 177). While there did exist some men who supported women and believed their deprivation of many rights was unjust, many more were disheartened with the advancing woman. Because men had come to relax in their domineering role, they became uncomfortable, if not fearful, when women showed their independence. This led to a bourgeois culture which can be summed up in a single word: uncertainty (Gay 48, 171). Changes were occurring
The history in the 1800s was really rough then now days because they had the Nez Perce war going on and at the same time, we had problems with woman not being able to vote, and the Immigrants were all looking for jobs. As I said earlier about women not being able to vote was a big step back for woman, not so much for men as they didn’t want women to vote. As the author said in the 1840s, emerging from the broader movement for women's rights”(w.i.t.p.n.). Woman were treated imperfect towards men all because they were a different gender, which is unacceptable back in the 1840s and would be now if it happened because we should all be treated the the same and have the same rights. As it says in the text “In order to earn revenue from their land
behind the job. Women of higher class had laborious work to do, although one of the
In the mid to late nineteenth century, America was full of potential. Settlers were cultivating the west, blacks that were once captive were no longer enslaved, and a woman’s role in society was undergoing a transformation. The reality of this all was, blacks were not considered equal status with whites, American Indians were being pushed out west and women were still considered second-class citizens.
At the end of the 18th century and during the 19th century, there were many changes to public ideology that affected the way that women perceived their roles in society. Prior to these changes, women had adopted the beliefs of separate “spheres” separating work into public life and their duties as mothers at home1. Women stayed at home to take care of the children and provide a warm, welcoming home for their husbands to take refuge from public life. Women became aware of their lack of legal and political power after the American Revolutionary War ended as they were denied the right to the same freedoms that granted the right to vote to the white, property-owning male population2. Despite granting women more liberty to run businesses, farms,
Women in the 19th century strived to be seen as strong dependable individuals, capable of making decisions and working in any position they pleased and with that they earned the right to vote. Even though they had earned the right to vote, people still challenged their rights, and wouldn’t let them participate in jobs that involved politics. Emily Murphy is an example, she was qualified lawyer but many male lawyers refused to accept her judgment because to them she wasn’t a “qualified person”. But the thing that made her really mad was when the prime minister said she wasn’t qualified. Emily then decided to rally up four other women to help her take her case to court. At first they were denied by the Supreme Court but when the Privy Council
Despite being under the rule of a female monarch, women faced many inequalities and suffering during the Victorian age. Examples of these inequalities include not having the right to vote, unequal educational and employment opportunities. Women were even denied the legal right to divorce in most cases. As the Norton Anthology states, these debates over women’s rights and their roles came to be known as the “woman question” by the Victorians. This lead to many conflicting struggles, such as the desire by all for women to be educated, yet they are denied the same opportunities afforded to men. While these women faced these difficulties, there was also the notion that women should be domestic and feminine. There was an ideal that women should be submissive and pure because they are naturally different. The industrial revolution introduced women into the labor workforce, but there was still a conflict between the two identities; one of an employed woman, and one of a domestic housewife.
Women in the 18th century were looked at as voiceless objects in a world ruled by men. Women and men did not always have equal rights. In the 18th century women were mainly defined by their family and household roles. The woman did not really have legal identity apart from their husbands. Women were look at as slaves because all they did was be at the house and satisfy their husbands in what they wanted. Men would have total control over his wife’s property. The woman also did not have the right to vote unlike men. Some things that women did not have the right of was to vote, own property, could not sit in a jury trial, and could not be a part of a lawsuit. In 1830, a number of women in the United States argued for the right of woman to own their property and to divorce. In the 18th century gothic literature was happening. Gothic literature was in fiction, art, music, poetry, film, and television. Gothic tradition also includes sense with extreme emotion, fear, madness, and death. Death as a tomb, entombment was also used which is to be placed in a tomb be buried. A feminist writer, publisher, social activist, public lecture, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, said that women depending on men made them unquestionable slaves to them in the United States society. Perkins married the artist Charles Stetson in1884, which then both had a daughter named Katherine. A story that she wrote that can illustrate how women were like in the 18th century is “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The story “The
The year was 1912 in London, England. Women lived at the mercy of their fathers, brothers, husbands and bosses; clearly a patriarchal society. Women’s lives consisted of keeping house and raising children and caring for their families. Those who worked outside of the home were limited to menial labor, earned significantly less than men, and surrendered their earnings to their husbands. Any inheritance of real estate or money a woman may have received was given to her husband and, most often, she had nothing to say about how it was managed or spent. A woman could not vote or run for office, and received little support, should she desire an education other than a ‘finishing school.’ (Clearly,