19th Century Women Essay

The lives of women in the 19th century is probably just about what one would expect it to be. People these days would probably compare it lightly to slavery. Women had almost no say in what happened to them after marriage, anything they was then controlled by their husband. In the 19th century women were expected to be silently strong, take care of a family and be prim and proper, have a somewhat active life outside of their housework and taking care of their husband, work outside the home if the family needed money, and this was even reflected in the female characters in the literature from the period. Leisure, at least what we consider it today, is a fairly new concept. Women’s leisure has expanded greatly, especially in the 19th century. The most concrete examples of the hobbies of upper-class women are found in books. Upper-class women were taught about music, art, dancing, and only respectable reading. Lower class women were not afforded the amount of time, or the money to contribute to leisure activities, because they were expected to work outside the home and take care of their home. These women spent most of their leisure time in things hosted by their churches and dances and plays put on by their towns. In the middle of the 19th century there was a rise in the cry for more women in the …show more content…
Women either lived and breathed for their families or worked to make their lives comfortable for themselves if they didn’t have a family. Women were expected to work inside the home to take care of their families, they pushed for their own natural rights in their own ways, and possibly worked outside of the home to provide extra income for their families to survive on. These women were incredibly brave, especially those women who broke the rules and fought for the things they wanted and how they wanted to see the world for their daughters and