Question 1
Before the revolutions, women were considered to be inferior to men. This was very clearly seen on the status of the lack of legal rights for married women. They were considered to unuseful people in society. The married women had no legal rights to own any property or make the decisions. The law did not recognize the rights of the women economically politically and in civil matters. The revolution started in the 18th century and this period, there was increased attention to the importance of the woman in shaping society (Friedman 69-70). It was during the 18th century when the scholars were keen to find ng the role of the women in the household matters. In the 18th century, the view of the women started changing and they were restraints to few legal and social matters. In the 18th century, the woman was not fully empowered because there was no evidence that the women could participate in most of the political positions. The ratio if the men to that of women in the colonies allowed some more women to bargain for the position in the marital relations more strongly. In the 18th century, America was a hierarchical and patriarchial structured and it was not egalitarian. This caused the subordinate and assignment of the domestic role to the women (Kulikoff 120).
The women were seen as the weaker sex and were capable of nothing but only the domestic chaos. In this era, women’s empowerment was only directed to carrying out domestic duties and making love. These views of the women to be weak and only needed in the bearing of children and making the home duties hindered the women’s ability to act politically and even spies. Although some women were fighting for equality and empowerment like Eliza Wilkinson it is clear that there were hindering barriers for the development of the women’s ability politically. There hindering thing inequality between the sexes was due to discrimination and prejudice (Zagarri 203). This prevented women from sharing their full potential and ability politically. The experience of America during the war as well as subsequent political changes led to the transformation and role of the women. Several women donned in uniform and they helped in fighting the British. The ability of the women started being seen in the full potential ass they participated in both political and civil matters and the roles of the household. This was one of the expected changes for them
Question 2
The women followed the decisions made by their husbands regardless of being good to them or not. The husbands gave the women the role of relegating win the homes as just the caretakers and mothers. The men took the responsibility of involving in productive activities outside the home (Thompson 133). The decision made by the men involved the prevention of the woman from accessing the institutional policies, education, laws, and employment. This can be supported by many parts of America by then when the woman lacked the essentials in the men. The special challenge that the women faced as a result of this was poverty, legal discrimination, and illiteracy. Women were not involved in the employment activities and therefore they could not earn a living. This led them to live a poor life. Besides, the legal laws were made by the man and the women had to bear with it regardless of how pressing they were.
Moreover, the man was exposed to basic formal skills and the women had to retain home and do home duties. Pro-revolutionary, women protested and act politically eve when their husband and the fathers are not present for advocating the republican motherhood. In this case, the women advocate and campaign for empowerment and equality (Smith 549). The republican motherhood does not call for the enslaved women but expose women to the social and political environment without the control of the man. The women make their decisions and participate in the legal laws framing without the control of the men. Politically in the pro-revolutionary era, women fought the fight for their freedom by breaking the chains of slavery and discrimination. They fight for gender equality and women’s involvement in legal laws.
Question 3
The unique dangers and challenges that the women faced in the home front war were the high risks of the deadly accidents in the munitions factories as they took the role of the husbands to provide for the children. In the war, the women felt helpless without the support of their husbands. The situation changed when the women followed the army because they could nit gets the support from their husbands and fathers on the battlefield (Appleby 1). Some of the wives of the high ranking officers in both continental and British armies lived a loyal life. They had the right to inherit the properties of their husbands. But it is not all the wives who could inherit the property. Taking an example of Sarah Troutbeck and another woman from Massachusetts, she admitted that she did not have an idea of the 550 acres of the land left by her relatives. This means that the wives of the most ranked officials were also in case of discrimination and inferiority. Most of them did not own things within the territory of their husbands. They were given the mandate to take care of the property without knowing how to acquire one.
There was no big difference between the wives of the most ranked officials and the enlisted men. The fact is that they were all discriminated but different always. The wives of the most raked officials lived a loyal life but under the pressure of the husbands. In the case of the enlisted men’s wives, they lived miserable lives lacking the basics and prone to dangerous diseases (Rodgers 11). But in general, the women were seen as weak in the society and therefore there was the almost similar treatment of the women from either top officials or lower-ranked men. The women in general were discriminated and considered inferior regardless of the social ranking class in America.
Works cited
Appleby, Joyce Oldham. “The vexed story of capitalism told by American historians.” Journal of the Early Republic 21.1 (2011): 1-18.
Friedman, Sharon. “Feminism as theme in twentieth-century American women’s drama.” American Studies 25.1 (2014): 69-89.
Kulikoff, Allan. “The transition to capitalism in rural America.” The William and Mary Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History and (2019): 120-144.
Rodgers, Daniel T. “Republicanism: the Career of a Concept.” The Journal of American History 79.1 (2012): 11-38.
Smith, Rogers M. “Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: the multiple traditions in America.” American political science review 87.3 (2013): 549-566.
Thompson, Edward P. “Eighteenth‐century English society: class struggle without class?.” Social History 3.2 (2018): 133-165.
Zagarri, Rosemarie. “The rights of man and woman in Post-Revolutionary America.” The William and Mary Quarterly 55.2 (2018): 203-230.
