Women's Role In The 19th Century
Introduction:
Despite the growth of industry, urban centers and immigration, America in the late 19th century was still predominantly rural. Seven out of ten people in the United States lived in small towns with populations under 2500 or on farms in 1870. In Indiana, the 1880 census reported a population of almost 2 million residents, about 55 per square mile, 1,010,000 men and 968,000 woman. About three out of four people lived in rural areas. Although much of the study done on woman's roles during this period looks at the roles of the emerging urban middle class or those of immigrant women, the changes that occurred affected rural women, too.
The "Cult of Domesticity, " first named and identified in the early part of the century, was solidly entrenched by late nineteenth century, especially in rural environments. The beliefs embodied in this Cult' gave women a central, if outwardly passive, role in the family. Women's God-given role, it stated, was as wife and mother, keeper of the household, guardian of the moral purity of all who lived therein. The Victorian home was to be a haven of …show more content…
The idea for equal suffrage and expanded rights for women arose from the abolition movement before the Civil War. In fact, the very idea of women's rights split the abolition movement, with most members coming out against woman suffrage. This split became very visible in July 1848, when 300 men and women gathered at the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York to demand political, social and economic equality for women. The results, the "Declaration of Sentiments," modeled after the Declaration of Independence, outlined the injustices against women and began the fight for women's rights. Even so, feminist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony temporarily suspended their actions on behalf of women's rights to push for abolition during the Civil
Despite the growth of industry, urban centers and immigration, America in the late 19th century was still predominantly rural. Seven out of ten people in the United States lived in small towns with populations under 2500 or on farms in 1870. In Indiana, the 1880 census reported a population of almost 2 million residents, about 55 per square mile, 1,010,000 men and 968,000 woman. About three out of four people lived in rural areas. Although much of the study done on woman's roles during this period looks at the roles of the emerging urban middle class or those of immigrant women, the changes that occurred affected rural women, too.
The "Cult of Domesticity, " first named and identified in the early part of the century, was solidly entrenched by late nineteenth century, especially in rural environments. The beliefs embodied in this Cult' gave women a central, if outwardly passive, role in the family. Women's God-given role, it stated, was as wife and mother, keeper of the household, guardian of the moral purity of all who lived therein. The Victorian home was to be a haven of …show more content…
The idea for equal suffrage and expanded rights for women arose from the abolition movement before the Civil War. In fact, the very idea of women's rights split the abolition movement, with most members coming out against woman suffrage. This split became very visible in July 1848, when 300 men and women gathered at the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York to demand political, social and economic equality for women. The results, the "Declaration of Sentiments," modeled after the Declaration of Independence, outlined the injustices against women and began the fight for women's rights. Even so, feminist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony temporarily suspended their actions on behalf of women's rights to push for abolition during the Civil