Women Roles in 19 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.4 Women Roles in 19

th Century In more recent history, the roles of women have changed greatly. Traditionally, middle-class women were typically involved in domestic tasks emphasizing childcare, and did not work as full paid employees. For poorer women, especially working class women, this often remained an ideal as economic necessity that forced them to find employment outside the home. The occupations that were available to them were, however, lower in prestige and pay than those available to men. The women’s life had changed one step forward from their old role. In the past, society would think that women’s roles were inferior to men, because they were considered as weak creature. Women duties at that time were doing their housework and taking care of their children. But, the process of changing stereotypes and raising the status of women is slow and uneven. Galena quoted in Young America http:www.connerprairie.orgHistoryOnline, December 2, 2008 says: Perceptions of Women during the early 1800s, Americans generally believed that there was a definite difference in character between the sexes; man was active, dominant, assertive, and materialistic, while woman was religious, modest, passive, submissive, and domestic. As a result, these developed an ideal of American womanhood, or a cult of true womanhood as denoted by historian Barbara Welter. This cult, evident in womens magazines and religious literature of the day, espoused four basic attributes of female character: piety, purity, submissiveness, domesticity. The nineteenth century has been referred to as the Womans Century, and it was a period of amazing change and progress for American women. There were great steps forward in womens legal status, their entrance into higher education and the professions, and their roles in public life http:www.greenwood.comcatalogGR3547.aspx, December 2, 2008. The development of women’s roles is different from one place to another because of different aspects. The gains made by women in the United States is generally are not matched by women in developing countries; they encourage changes in other places. Burke states that the shift of women’s roles in the society is influenced by the economic changes. In a series of highlighting womens roles in major areas of the world, Wayne traces the 19th century in the US as a great progress for women www.greenwood.comcatalog, December 1, 2008. The nineteenth-century American woman was expected to find her strength and meaning of self in her submissive state and in her dedication to home and family. However, as a result of modernization, industrialization, and the accompanying changes in society, women became increasingly, though gradually, more independent. They asserted themselves in the expanding industrial sector. They were drawn into social, political, religious, and literary activities, speaking out on relevant issues of the day. The American Civil War which lasted in the middle of the nineteenth century had also brought about profound changes for women. It made women come into new situation and occupation and opened careers in the nursing, and public speaking. Simkins 1969:241 writes: The women of the Confederacy were burdened with more than usual duties. They sent their men forth with gaudy banners, and danced and sang with the soldiers on furlough. They nursed the sick and the wounded in the numerous ghastly hospitals of the confederacy, even extending their kindly services to prisoners of war. He asserts that women of all classes felt the awful anxiety for the absent soldiers, suspense for the outcome of the battles, and grief for the dead. Besides, mistress assumed the full responsibilities of the plantations, managing the slaves and directing the planting and harvesting. Brooks http:www.helium.com, May 10, 2009 stated that: As men from the Union and Confederate armies battled, women were comforting on and off the bloody battlefields. Their sensitivity and elegance helped balance a Civil Wars cruelty and bestiality. Their husbands, sons, brothers, fathers and uncles fought and died for states rights and rights of Man. Women were there to motivate and support them. Their roles werent small by any means. Those waiting at home did their part, raising the children, taking care of wounded soldiers and being refuge for others. Brooks http:www.helium.com, May 10, 2009 states that when the Civil War began, men from both sides were called away to join the bloody battles, leaving behind frightened and lonely wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters. In a time when it would have been so easy for women to give up hope, Southern belles and sophisticated Yankee ladies alike chose instead to set to work to support, clothe, feed, and care for their men. Jones http:www.helium.com, May 10, 2009 states that often times, they became defenders of the home front as enemy troops swarmed into towns where manpower had all but been depleted by soldiers going off to war. These same women served as informal nurses to the ailing and the wounded, sometimes to those from the opposing side. Most importantly, they provided a support system for each other, keeping the home fires burning in hopes that their men would return. As nurses, women often witnessed the war at its worse. Braving the eminent dangers on the battlefield, they dutifully cared for the wounded and the sick, some losing their lives in the process. It can be concluded that the women’s role in 19 th century had already developed from the traditional roles they had had a century before. Many women in this century had been able to encourage themselves to be self-reliant. They also developed their roles either in their family or in their society and professional lives.

2.5 Feminism