1820-1860: A Gender Analysis

Gender, based on the Frank’s definition, is a social construction. Since the fur trade, of which beaver pelts, furs and skins were marketed and traded for several of resources of the French, British and Dutch, most societies have become less and less egalitarian. Less egalitarian meaning women and men had more distinctions and barriers between each other. Men seemed to have more authority, superiority and more of what we see in today’s culture as a fatherly figure. Women, on the other hand, are seen as weaker, caring, domestic and submissive. Basically, the role of women has slowly declined because society started to revolve more around men’s importance. The period from 1820-1860 became the era where this slowly took place. Social systems pushing females to become what today is considered to be feminine; characteristics such as domestic, fertile, docile, submissive, and obedient have taken over what most men thought of women. …show more content…
The men’s priorities were to provide safety and steady income; this is also true in today’s society. On the other hand, the main priorities of a woman were thought to revolve around the children, household and house-making. Taking care of children, feeding them, clothing them, and cleaning the house, anything to make sure that when the father gets home that everything is neat and orderly; these were just some of the activities the mother had to partake in every day manners. As mentioned in Jones 119, mothers taught their daughters how to tend to household chores. The Cult of Domesticity was aimed towards middle and higher class families. Women were seen more as an accessory to a household rather than anything else. Men used educated women in their household as a status symbol (AmericanInClass). Even though the importance of women is apparent, most women were not allowed to own property of their own because it would allow them to have more individualistic