From: Kristy Ortenzi
Date: 3/28/00
Time: 6:59:51 PM
Remote Name: 152.163.201.201
Kristy Ortenzi Week 10
Text Assignment
In the eighteenth century many men and women worked together because working life was centered closer to the home. That was soon to change, in the time period between the Revolution and the mid-nineteenth century the white middle-class American family went through many major changes. During the early nineteenth century, in many towns and cities, factories and couninghouses were being introduced and many husbands were employed by them. They left their wives at home to take care of the house and the children. At this time, men were much more likely to be involved in the economic role compared to the women. Although the women “kept home” for the family did not mean that they were inferior to the men. In some ways the wives could be viewed superior to their husbands because they cultivated the “feminine” virtues of love and self-sacrifice and acted as guardians of religious and moral values. At the period, women who were in working-class families usually did not work outside of the house instead they would clean the house, cooked, took care of many children. If a women was not married during the early nineteenth century and fell into the working-class category she barely had enough money to support herself. Some of these women had to become prostitutes to make enough money to survive. In middle-class families, housewives had the luxury to read new literature directed towards housewives. This literature was informing them to participate in female-dominated charity events and how to build friendships with other women. This turned into a feminine subculture that emphasized sisterhood as well as “sorority.” By the early decades of the nineteenth century many children were staying home longer and the mothers were paying much more attention to them. Parents became more in tune to their responsibilities of taking care of their kids. This concern for children gave families a much closer parent and child relationship. Although, many parents were strict with their children they still showed affection as well as authority. These “new families” were much smaller then the families in the decades before. Women had more autonomy by 1840 compared to their colonial forebears. By 1840 the majority of women were more independent then the women previous to them. Women not only ran the house but also had many other important, demanding duties.