19th Century American Marriage Research Paper

Marriage has changed immensely since the 19th century. Today, love is an important component of marriage and women do not have the same roles as they did in the 19th century. Women have gained more equality than they had back then and it is shown in many marriages. Today, it isn’t uncommon for women to be known as the one who “wears the pants” in the relationship. It also isn’t uncommon for men and women to be equals in a marriage. I believe that women and men should be equals. The roles of two people in a marriage should be divided evenly. Not everything should be divided half and half, but there should be an agreed-on understanding of the roles each partner plays. The observations in this paper are based strictly off the average American marriage. …show more content…
In fact, back then marriage was thought of as too serious to involve love. In most of the 19th century, love was thought of as irrelevant because marriage was like business. The men married the women and the women’s riches went to their husband. Men often looked for woman of wealth, kind of like how some women today look for men with money. Marriage was a survival tactic. Women bring the money to the marriage and men handle all money thereafter. For women, the men handle all decisions and care for the women throughout the whole marriage. However, in the late 19th century to the early 20th century women started to ask to be treated equally. Women wanted to be thought of as their husband’s partner rather than his property. By the 20th century love began to become a factor of