1. How did diverse women construct or resist American identity?
Over the years American women worked hard to let their voices be heard. In the earlier years it seems that many women agreed it was their duty to be the home maker. Many women, such as Eliza Leslie, Sarah Josepha Hale, and Catathine Breecher all created domestic books. These books were essentially a guide book for women on how to run the typical American home. These female authors helped provide women with tools to work better in the domestic sphere, thereby strengthened the construct of American women staying and working in the home. However, many female authors also used their writing to change the role of women. For many years, American women were unable to receive a well-rounded …show more content…
Franny Fern uses her writing to comment on the identity of women. She uses satirical writing to point out the absurdity between men, women, money, work, and society. Her piece, “Advice to Ladies” demonstrates the typical American girl, obsessed with shopping and men. Fern attempted to make women realize the need and importance of women’s rights and independence. “O girls! set your affections on cats…” (1049) is one example of Fern’s satirical comparison between husbands and cats. Ferns makes a point that husbands and men care only for themselves and “will marry again, and take what you have saved to dress his second wife…” (1049). Her writing was different and went against the norms or American women. The American identity has changed greatly over there years, and it is due to many strong and willful …show more content…
How did class contribute to the complexity of American women’s self definition?
Not only were women in general regularly thought of as inferior, but class also played a part in how women were treated. One very obvious difference between lower class women and upper class women was their ability to obtain a better education. Often times in early America a woman’s education depended on the amount of money she or her parents (if they encourage further education) could afford. Judith Sargent Murray is one example of a women that received an advanced education because of her parents’ wealth. This created a distinction between educated upper-class women and poorer, uneducated low class women.
With wealth came an air of sophistication and propriety. Upper class women were not supposed to work and allowed their husbands to provide everything for them. Poorer families, however, often needed income from both husband and wife, or at least some sort of household labor that the wife usually performed. Josiah Allen’s wife writes about a woman living and working on a farm. This austere, hardworking, female character represents the lower, working class of women that existed in America. To this particular woman delicacy and elegance were not a part of a woman’s life. When she discusses female delicacy she says. “female delicacy flourishes in a ball room, where these sensitive creeters with dresses on indecently low in the neck will waltz all night with strange men’s arms around their waits”
Over the years American women worked hard to let their voices be heard. In the earlier years it seems that many women agreed it was their duty to be the home maker. Many women, such as Eliza Leslie, Sarah Josepha Hale, and Catathine Breecher all created domestic books. These books were essentially a guide book for women on how to run the typical American home. These female authors helped provide women with tools to work better in the domestic sphere, thereby strengthened the construct of American women staying and working in the home. However, many female authors also used their writing to change the role of women. For many years, American women were unable to receive a well-rounded …show more content…
Franny Fern uses her writing to comment on the identity of women. She uses satirical writing to point out the absurdity between men, women, money, work, and society. Her piece, “Advice to Ladies” demonstrates the typical American girl, obsessed with shopping and men. Fern attempted to make women realize the need and importance of women’s rights and independence. “O girls! set your affections on cats…” (1049) is one example of Fern’s satirical comparison between husbands and cats. Ferns makes a point that husbands and men care only for themselves and “will marry again, and take what you have saved to dress his second wife…” (1049). Her writing was different and went against the norms or American women. The American identity has changed greatly over there years, and it is due to many strong and willful …show more content…
How did class contribute to the complexity of American women’s self definition?
Not only were women in general regularly thought of as inferior, but class also played a part in how women were treated. One very obvious difference between lower class women and upper class women was their ability to obtain a better education. Often times in early America a woman’s education depended on the amount of money she or her parents (if they encourage further education) could afford. Judith Sargent Murray is one example of a women that received an advanced education because of her parents’ wealth. This created a distinction between educated upper-class women and poorer, uneducated low class women.
With wealth came an air of sophistication and propriety. Upper class women were not supposed to work and allowed their husbands to provide everything for them. Poorer families, however, often needed income from both husband and wife, or at least some sort of household labor that the wife usually performed. Josiah Allen’s wife writes about a woman living and working on a farm. This austere, hardworking, female character represents the lower, working class of women that existed in America. To this particular woman delicacy and elegance were not a part of a woman’s life. When she discusses female delicacy she says. “female delicacy flourishes in a ball room, where these sensitive creeters with dresses on indecently low in the neck will waltz all night with strange men’s arms around their waits”