How Did Women Change During The Revolutionary War

“I do not believe in sex distinction in literature, law, politics, or trade or that modesty and virtue are more becoming to women than to men, but wish we had more of it everywhere”. This quote from Belva Lockwood, an American lawyer and reformer perfectly embodies the spirit of revolt among women in the early republic (Cameron Paul). Indeed, the US Revolutionary War is often defined as a struggle for independence rather than an attempt to redefine social roles and structure of society. Women’s implications and social movements during the war is often diminish but has been brought to light by historians over the last decade. During the Revolution the social significance of women became gradually apparent to both men and women themselves. “The
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