Colonial Women In Colonial America

Women are often overlooked when studying colonial America. They were the basic foundation of English colonial societies by providing support to their male counterparts. Cooking, cleaning, and raising the children are the main jobs that people remember about colonial women, but they did so much more than housework. As the mother and female figure of the household they were the basic infrastructure that kept English societies together.
Basic English homes were organized by sex; the men were the head of the household while the women were the keepers of the house. Women's lives were centered on the difficult work of farming households ("The Daily Life of Colonial Women"). While women were tending to the farm labor, one can only assume that the men were either contributing to the local government or providing defense for the community. This left the females to do all the strenuous activities that were required to maintain a stable home. For example, women could often be found in the yards or gardens digging up food to cook for the family meal that night or they may be gathering firewood in the to warm the oven ("The Daily Life of Colonial Women"). …show more content…
As women did not go to school, they often had to learn how to provide public health on their own or by learning from a mother or sister. ". . . women were the ones who provided the most healthcare during this time, as they were charged for caring for the members of their families despite having no formal medical training of their own" ("Daily Life in Colonial America"). Since the women were the main healthcare providers of colonial times, during war some women came with troops to nurse the wounded, clean, and cook for them ("The Role of Women in Building a New