Inequality In A Midwife's Tale

With every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. All actions, regardless of their intentions, produce outcomes that are unforeseen and can last for years to come. The British colonists ' decision to populate the east coast of North America came with a list of negative repercussions. Vickers’s Farmers & Fishermen allows readers to enter another period and describes the hardships and their ability to overcome them as an explanation of how the colonists were successful, while Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale analyzes the journal of a woman 's personal experiences of living within such a colony. While they differ in their delivery of explaining their societies, they both display levels of inequality and stress the importance of each member …show more content…
One of which, functionalism, is theorized by Emile Durkheim. In Farmers & Fishermen, Ulrich tells of the conditions at the time of the establishment on the eastern seaboard of North America. As the British colonists moved to the New Land, they struggled with their sense of identity. Were they British or their own independent people? This conflict stemmed from them trying to continue their traditional routines that were grown within their home country. New England colonists tried to carry out their traditions but the New World did not provide the correct conditions to do so. This can be seen by comparing the amounts of labor and land between the two countries.
In Farmers & Fishermen, it is apparent that Britain is labor-rich and land-poor while the New World, in contrast, is the opposite. A way to combat the stark differences is to create a labor system that addresses the needs of the colonists. Farmers & Fishermen effectively addresses this issue by stressing the importance of familial relationships. This solution to this dilemma led to another factor that affected Ulrich 's …show more content…
Dilemmas were answered with decisions that left a society divided by gender. Men could easily fluctuate through the stratification of class, as they created it, while women were bound to the class of their husbands or not even viewed as a class at all. In fact, women were second class to men in every aspect of society throughout the colonial era. This simply was not true when examining the works of Ulrich and Vickers. Women were placed into a position where their actions would speak louder than words. Even if their actions went unnoticed at the time, they were the key to the success of transitioning from Britain to the New Land. The consequence of women being held in an inferior position to men is still prevalent today. But regardless of men’s view of women, women will always be the heart of society. Behind every great man, there is a great