From: Nekeira batchelor
Date: 3/29/00
Time: 6:09:32 PM
Remote Name: 205.188.198.44
The roles of women and the family in pre Civil War America where simple task that did not involve much thought or work. The women and the family where subservient to the male head of the household, the wife was often treated as one of the children by her husband. During pre Civil War times childhood was not looked at as one of the most important stages in life, and great care was not given to the rearing and treatment of the average child. The family was also not looked at as an institution of love instead it was a hierarchy run by the dominant male figure. Although women where fully grown adults they did not have much say in personal matters that affected themselves or their children and homes, they where at the bottom of the societal totem pole. Compared to their colonial forebears American women had more autonomy by 1840, they begin to make many more decisions for themselves and family. The male- female marital relationship had changed from a totally male run dictatorship to a relationship based on love, this changed enabled the wife to communicate differently with her husband. The woman begin to take on more responsibilities within the household, she became the direct custodian of the children and was responsible for their proper moral upbringing. The women where also looked at as good and righteous and so they responsible for bringing these qualities out in the men in their lives , such as their husbands, fathers and sons. Women also became the spiritual head of the home and where expected to convey the religious teachings to the members of their households. During the 1840’s women became largely responsible for the ethics and morals involved in childbearing and in being companions and advisors to their husbands, although women took on these new roles in society the men where still the dominant forces in American life.