Women in Early America

Women in Early America

Since the dawn of time women have been working . They were the nurturers , the caretakers , the silent executives in a world of men Early in the history of America , women have been the co-proprietors of the home taking care of the cooking , the cleaning , and the childrearing Women who worked outside the home did it to the husbands and the family . The husbands were considered head of the household and therefore had the final decision concerning the work the wives did . Several factors caused the roles of women

to change . Single women , immigrant women , and mothers who wanted to provide a greater financial support to the household changed the history of gender roles . As the history of working women developed this will address the concept of the household economy , the importance of women to early industry and which concept-pre-industrial system or capitalist system-gave women a greater advantage

Women would contribute to the household by taking care of the home . The husbands would go outside the home to work and depending on the type of work it would keep the husband away for days or months . To help with the financial side of the home , the wives would travel to open markets selling perishable goods such as milk and eggs . The men usually sold wheat , beef and pig skins . When money was low the women would barter and exchange goods for the home . This establishes the first system of a credit network (Kulikoff , 2000 . If anything happed to the husband then the wife became the sole bread winner for the family . Certain changes made an impact on women history such as the cotton industry , tobacco industry and the rise of rice planters . The increase in slave labor put more pressure on the plantation wives . She was in change in managing the estates . The plantation wife was responsible for providing slaves with food , clothing , and shelter . She was also required to provide the spiritual well-being of the slave (Clinton and Lunardini , 2000

If extra money was needed , the women would take work into their home such as sewing and cooking . Certainly , the needs of the family came first , but as the family grew so did the need to go outside the home for additional income . Working outside the home was first seen with white single women , then immigrants and then later in the 19th century married women with families begging to work outside the home . Women around the Civil War time were encouraged to join the labor force to earn money for them or to augment their income before they married (Clinton and Lunardini , 2000

Women made important contributions to businesses in early America . The pre-dawn of the industrial revolution gave women options and women were attracted to the labor force . Most women saw this as a way to contribute financially to their household . These women also saw this as an opportunity to expand their education . Other women joined the workforce to challenge conventional wisdom of women...