Gender Inequality And The Status Of Colonial Women
The British and American relationship during colonial times had always been unstable; even some of the early settlers came to America to avoid religious persecution in England. After the British sent over settlers to America, it became too busy with a war against Spain and a civil war to worry about America. The colonists enjoyed this salutary neglect because they were able to trade with other countries and to avoid England’s Navigation Acts. When England needed help paying for its wars, it started to enforce mercantilism against the colonies. This resulted in stricter Navigation Acts and angry colonists. There was a brief period of peace when the Americans helped the British win the French and Indian war, but it soon ended when the British passed the Proclamation of 1763. This prevented colonists from moving into the newly won land from the French and Indian War. The British continued to anger the colonists with acts that taxed everyday goods, such as the Stamp and Sugar Acts. Patriots fought back with the Boston Tea Party. This resulted in the British’s closing all Massachusetts ports in the Intolerable Acts and the Quebec Act. This was the last straw for many colonists and eventually led to America declaring independence.
Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration, claimed that “all men are created equal. ” He wrote this to show England that its treatment of America was immoral, and this justified America’s need for independence. When Jefferson wrote this powerful sentence, he didn’t consider the treatment of different ethnic, religious, and gender groups in America. In America, the only people eligible for the rights Jefferson and the Patriots wanted to fight for were white males who owned property. African Americans, Native Americans, and especially women did not receive half as many rights as white males even before the revolution. During the colonial era, Jefferson’s assertions that all people were created equal were inconsistent with American values because women had fewer rights than men, had fewer choices than men, and were seen as the inferior gender. In the eyes of the government, women and men were not created equally, and women did not deserve as many legal rights as men. In the beginning of American settlement, most settlers were Englishmen who were loyal to the King and to British laws. These laws and traditions also applied to the treatment of women (Zane). Colonists thought it was unfair that the British were able to tax them when there was no colonist representation in Parliament, but women were not given any representation in the new laws made after America became independent. Women had little legal rights because they “could not vote or hold public office” (Colonial).
Without the same legal representation, women were far from being equal to men because they could not voice their opinions to fight for the same rights. In 1742, Eliza Lucas, a senator’s wife, wrote to her father, who was worried she would try and run her husband’s affairs. In the letter, she wrote, “I am well assured the acting out of my proper province and invading his, would be an inexcusable breach of prudence; as his superiour understanding, (without any other consideration) would point him to dictate, and leave me nothing but the easy task of obeying”. Women accepted that they had no say in the government and knew that they would be conspicuous if they attempted to. Another reason men were legally superior to women was that married women could not own anything. An unmarried women could at least be “considered a legal person and could own property”. However, since women were often married off by their parents and at a young age, women lost their rights early in their lives and were considered “civilly dead”. Once married, a woman was stripped of all legal rights she had. For example, “Married women could not make contracts or be sued, so they could not work or own a business… they had no rights to their body… any wages wives earned were paid to their husband. Wives had no claim to their children” (Allgor). Women were passed from their fathers to their husbands and were forced to listen to all their decisions; without any legal rights, women could not be equal to men. Women had one option of what to do with their future, and if they refused the social norm, they were looked down upon. The main purpose of women was to give birth to many kids, to raise them, and to do household chores. Once a woman entered her marriage, her household chores would revolve around her husband. For instance, since most people were farmers, “women put in long days of hard physical labor in the house and its surrounding yards”. This work was in addition to caring for children and feeding the family.
Mary Cooper, wife of a New York farmer stated, “I have seene little else but hard labor and much sorrow. . . . I am dirty and tired almost to death”. Women were in charge of maintaining a well-run household, but they were also encouraged to help their husbands produce crops. The colonial society stressed the importance of birth and family life. Once a woman married a man, she was expected to have many children during her birthing years. After she had her first child and remained healthy, there was an “average gap of two years between children meant that most women endured eight or nine pregnancies during their childbearing years”. When a woman was birthing a child, she was still expected to perform her daily chores. Esther Edwards Burr, a colonial mother in the mid 1700’s stated, “When I had but one Child my hands were tied, but now I am tied hand and foot (how I shall get along when I have got ½ dzn or 10 children I cant devise understand)”. The more young children a mother had, the more difficult it was for her to complete her chores and to care for the rest of her family. Colonial mothers’ lack of attention to their children resulted in terrible accidents. Burr spoke about an incident in 1755, when a toddler “fell into a fire and burnt her hands and face most tirrably, but is like to recover with the loss of one of her fingers”. When a mother gave birth to a girl, this “initiated the beginning of another continuum, the cycle of female experience”.
Mothers taught their young daughters “how to manage a home and look after young children by watching and helping their mothers”. Daughters learned from their mothers and eventually passed their knowledge on to their daughters, creating a never ending cycle. Daughters were also forced to mature faster because their mothers needed help with chores around the house. A young mother complained to her sister, “Girls are very scarce for all are Ladys now a days”. Daughters were taught only skills to become a mother and wife; “they saw no particular reason why girls should be able to write… but sons were sent to their fathers for instruction in writing”. From a young age, women were not given the same education opportunities and were forced to help their mothers with daily chores; this led them to one particular future, while men who had multiple choices in their future. Men and women could not be equal because women were seen as the weaker and submissive gender. In both England and America, religion was a big part of everyday life. Some of America’s first settlers, the Puritans, came to America to practice their stricter practices. Colonial parents “were keen for each and every one of their children to read the Bible”. In colonial times, the biblical interpretation was that “Eve committed the first sin by tempting Adam to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge… and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden was regarded as primarily the fault of women. By giving birth, women gained redemption not only for themselves, but for all of humanity”. Women were constantly reminded of Eve’s mistakes when they went to church. In George Whitefield’s sermon, he says, “Accordingly we always find, that where the conditions were not performed, on the non-performance of which the threatenings were denounced, God always executed the punishment threatened. The driving Adam out of Edem. The priest stated that God will punish those who sin; therefore, women continued to be inferior to men to please God and to correct their gender’s mistakes. Even if not everyone interpreted the bible in this way, it was one of God’s commandments to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”. In colonial times, the Bible was the word of God, and anything in the bible was true. Blaming women for Adam and Eve’s expulsion made them believe they needed to birth children for redemption, and like they owed men for Eve’s mistakes.
Another way women were considered inferior to men the general treatment that women received from men. Under the law, women “had no right to their body, which meant that their husbands could hire them out… husbands also were allowed to beat their wife”. A husband basically owned his wife and could make her do anything because she could not resist. In a letter to her husband, John Adams, Abigail Adams wrote, “your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute”. Adams stated the known truth that men are more dominant than women, and she asked him to allow women more rights in the Constitution. He responded by laughing at her and brushing her concerns off as nothing. Women were also seen as the lesser of the two genders because in colonial times, women bettered themselves for the improvement of men. For example, a young mother said, “A woman who is skilled in every useful art, who practices every domestic virtue… may, by precept and example, inspire her brothers, her husband, or her sons… that future heroes and statesmen, when arrived at the summit of military or political fame, shall exaltingly declare, it is to my mother I owe this elevation”. This young mother represents how all women in colonial women thought. They accepted the fact that they could not accomplish as much as men and settled for becoming women that could influence a man instead. Even though women had less rights than men, they could be considered equal because colonial women had more rights than British women. Colonial women could file for divorce and were “heard before a court composed of the governor and his council. ” British women, however, had to “appeal to ecclesiastical courts were reluctant to grant divorce on any grounds”. Women could also be considered equal to men because there were powerful women who could do a man’s job. For example, Margaret Brent was a “large landowner in Maryland… ran her own plantation… put down a rebellion against the governor… she was also attorney for the proprietor”.
Even though colonial women had a few more rights than British women they were both considered inferior to British and colonial men. For example, “neither British or colonial women could vote… any property owned before marriage and any earnings made during marriage legally belonged to their husband. Women had no ownership of either. They were not independent citizens in any way; they could not enter into a contract, sue, or be sued”. Just because colonial women had more rights than British women, did not mean they were treated equally to men. Also, in colonial America, “few women were rich enough and willful enough to be as successful as Margaret Brent was in a man’s world”. Brent was part of a small group that could overcome the gender inequality, but the majority of women lived in men’s shadows.
Jefferson was only referring to the British treatment of Americans when he stated that all men were created equally because colonial men had more rights, more choices, and more superiority than colonial women. Even though colonial women were treated worse than men, women used those past experiences to fight for the rights they have today and constantly fight against any unfairness they might encounter. From all those years of oppression, they learned the importance of believing in themselves and fighting for their rights and opportunities. Even though there are still challenges they face today, whether they are arrogant men or outdated traditions, women continue to rise to the challenges and will not stop fighting until total equality is achieved.
