Women In Colonial America

In modern America, women are sometimes looked upon negatively or with little value. Stereotypes haunt women and can even discourage them from achieving their dreams. Dating back to colonial America, women were assigned the role of a caretaker for men and their homes, giving a norm for women to meet. At the time, women were associated with peace, cleaning, and obedience. This is especially noteworthy as women weren’t born to fit one specific role, men merely told what to do throughout history. By having historically held a household position, women are expected to maintain that role today. Because of this, women have been discouraged from joining the STEM field today. Despite all this, gender norms still limit women to a small extent. Women
They could not pursue a certain passion such as exploration or fighting, as that was reserved only for men at the time. Martha Saxton states that, “Young girls were expected to be obedient,” and that older women were expected to “behave deferentially around their own husbands.” (Linda W., 2004) Women had been put on a restraint due to religion, and It was because of religion that women were expected to be obedient to their husbands and become loyal to them. This ultimately led to women having a role inside the household rather than chasing a career. Women had to teach their children at home, clean up for the husband, and cater to all of his needs. This was the norm for women in colonial America, but in contemporary America this is no longer the case. A piece of personal experience on this topic of gender roles comes from my own mother. When I was only four years old and my brother being seven, my mother and father had a divorce. My brother and I lived with my mom and only visited my dad on some weekends. When it came to school, my brother and I had to walk to get there and when we came home, our mom wasn’t there yet. Instead of living the stereotypical life as a housewife, she lived the life of a single mother with two kids that had to constantly work to support us. Being a teacher’s assistant and eventually a teacher, my mom did not have a college degree while she raised us. On
Recently, there has been a problem with women being underrepresented in STEM fields, fields that men have dominated historically. Attitudes towards STEM have changed over time however, and this is especially apparent in young girls in elementary school. After a study was conducted on elementary school girls’ attitude towards Math, researchers found that girls don’t have a negative feeling towards Math as many thought. (Tichenor et al., 2016) There have been stereotypes that women do not want to engage themselves in Math, and it has also been stereotyped that a boy/man is better suited to pursue a math or science career. With the findings in research, most girls in second grade have been looking at math as useful and fun. This can also potentially be credited to the removal of any stereotypical depictions in a classroom, as they formerly discouraged women from taking part in a STEM field. (Toglia, 2013) With the removal of stereotypical content, women will be less likely to believe that they are not suited to do STEM work. If stereotypical content is shown, it can portray the idea that only men are suited to do the task portrayed. Men are often shown on content relating to STEM, since men were previously the only ones allowed to work in STEM