Table of Contents
What was the role of women in the West in the early 1800s?
During the early 1800’s, women were generally trapped in their homes and would only perform domestic chaos and duties. Nature and the society had given them roles as the home keepers, ethical keepers for the home and the entire society, as well as house wives for their families(Wayne, 2007, p. 99)..
What challenges did women face during westward expansion?
The climate could be very harsh, and settlers also dealt with annoying insects and dangerous animals. Having left friends and family behind in the East, many women faced homesickness and isolation. In the early years of settlement, women experienced many other challenges as well.
Where did women go during the westward expansion?
Some women had to go to boomtowns in order to earn money. Where they worked jobs such as laundresses, waitresses, dance hall girls, and even prostitutes.
What did women of the West do?
Some of these women were slaves, some were free, and some were born into slavery and found freedom in the Old West. They were laundresses, freedom advocates, journalists, educators, midwives, business proprietors, religious converts, philanthropists, mail and freight haulers, and civil and social activists.
How was the life for women different in the West?
What were the challenges of pioneer life for women in the West? Women were doctors, cooks teachers, servants, gave their family financial support by sewing or laundry. Women could own property and control their own money, in Wyoming Territory led the nation to let women vote.
What was women’s role in Manifest Destiny?
Women valued domesticity, piety, and other feminine virtues and largely avoided the masculine world of politics. Through the expansion, women were able to not only expand the American borders, but also their own. Women worked in the fields alongside their husbands. Women also took care of families that moved west.
What work did women in the West do?
What is the role of a girl in the society?
They go to school, help with housework, work in factories, make friends, care for elder and younger family members and prepare themselves to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. Girls play multiple roles in the household, society and the economy.
Why did so many women move to the west?
Thousands of women were motivated to move west by the Homestead Act in 1862. This act gave single women the right to claim their own land. Others set out to become teachers to educate those that moved westward.
What did the Homestead Act do for women?
Now for the women that trekked across the west. Thousands of women were motivated to move west by the Homestead Act in 1862. This act gave single women the right to claim their own land. Others set out to become teachers to educate those that moved westward.
What was the role of women in the Victorian era?
Such is the view of society when it came to women of the West from 1890-1920. The roles of women were set forth for them by the Victorian idea that a woman was limited in her abilities to survive in a man’s world and that she was expected to focus only on her domestic duties. For many women the accepted roles were rewarding and worthwhile.
What was the role of women in society?
For many women the accepted roles were rewarding and worthwhile. They happily set forth creating a home for their husbands and children. For some women the role expected of them was disappointing and stifling. Woman who dared to step out from the norms set by society were typically scorned and ridiculed.