American Revolution Women

The American revolution had many effects on women of the era, both positive and negative. In The Illusion of Change: Woman and the American Revolution, Joan Hoff-Wilson argues that the negative effects of the war outweigh the positives and that women loose some of the status they maintained as wives, mothers, and widowers. She believes that the American Revolution came as a great disadvantage to women both during and after the fighting, and that woman did not gain any assets from the war. Hoff-Wilson makes this clear in many was, for instance when she states “The American Revolution produced no significant benefits for American women.” Hoff-Wilson is very decisive and has many ways in which she backs up her ideas.
Hoff-Wilson has many ideas …show more content…
Ultimately the ‘putting out’ system was replaced entirely by the factory that employed the same women and children who had formerly been household spinners.” Due to this decrease of spinning in the home, women were not able to make as much profit off of their creations as they once had. This decrease of women’s economic ability shows the inherent status change that affected women, especially single women since spinning was a job single females mainly possessed. Another way in which Hoff-Wilson proves her thesis is the way in which women view virtue and morality. She believes that these words were defined in political terms by male leaders and were often misunderstood by most women. Women held the ideas of virtue close to their hearts, this is illustrated when Hoff-Wilson says “its obsession with ‘virtue’ versus ‘corruption’ struck a particularly responsive chord among literate women.” This is important because it was a common belief that women, by being inherently virtuous, could influence such virtuousness upon their husbands and sons. This means that since virtue is a male definition, they have control over the way women influence their husbands and sons. Hoff-Wilson also backs up her thesis when she …show more content…
Hoff-Wilson believes that the American Revolution had a negative effect on women, whereas Norton believes that is brought about a subtle stirring of positive change. Norton believes that when the men left for war the women had to shoulder more responsibilities such as finances, this ended up giving women a sense of independence and weakened the idea that men were needed to help out with public affairs. To this point Hoff-Wilson believes that since before the war the women were not involved in the finances and public affairs, so when they were thrown upon them they did not know what to do and ended up going bankrupt. Another difference between the two is that Norton believes that after the war women had more right in choosing things, such as who to marry and the amount of children, as well as having more of a standing in the home. Hoff-Wilson believes that after the war there was an increase of women being blamed for the trouble that fell onto the house when the men were away and relied upon to be subordinate so the could maintain the order of the family. These differences are essential in understanding the reality that women of the time lived