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Women Reform Dbq

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DBQ During the time period from the end of the American Revolution to the Civil War, American womanhood changed greatly. Due to differing beliefs during the time the American women’s ideals became to change. At the time, main beliefs were the “republican motherhood”, or the thought that women had power in the country’s politics in the sense that they raised the next generation, and the “cult of domesticity”, or the thought that women should be submissive, moral, and take care of their husbands and family. These beliefs greatly limited the power of the women in the 18th century. Due to these ideas, such as the “republican motherhood” and “cult of domesticity” during the time period from the American Revolution to the Civil War, women …show more content…

Also during this time, the Panic of 1837 occurred leaving many unemployed, therefore the number of women employed during the 19th century would have been even higher. Women at this time period worked mainly in textile and clothing factories. Although many young girls worked in factories, as shown in the letter written by a factory worker, life in a factory is much different than life at home. At first the girl questioned why factories were ever made, however, with time the working life grew on her. Also, often times women were worked much harder than the men. In the letters written by a frontier woman in Iowa in 1861, the male worker worked much less than she did. She stated that “the hired man left just as the corn planting commenced” and she was left to do the hard work. This illustrates the inequality between the two genders very well. On the other hand, the national issue of slavery greatly suppressed the lower classes and races of women. As illustrated in H.L. Stephens’ The Parting, slavery split up women and families. This splitting went against the republic motherhood beliefs that women should stay at home and raise the family, however it took away the few rights that women had. Also, slaves were property, which took away all rights of humanity that women had during this time. As stated in Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,

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