Nancy Cott And Gerda Learner Analysis

During the Industrial Revolution, another chore was added to women’s list, which is work outside of the home. The articles I read was a deliberation between the two authors, Nancy Cott and Gerda Lerner, on whether or not the industrial revolution created more opportunities for women. According to Nancy, the industrial revolution did create more opportunities for women as compared to women’s life before the revolution. On the other hand, Gerda disagrees with Nancy’s argument. She believes the opportunities women had during the revolution was nothing more than a phase and was only opened to young single women for certain careers. Personally, I sided with Gerda because women continued to follow social customs expected for their gender. Most middle-class …show more content…
Women continued to live as second class citizens compared to white men. Lerner perceived the new job opportunities for women within the economy as an apparatus to increase the profits of goods with cheap labor. Female labor within the US existed before the 19th century. When America was an undeveloped country everyone was expected to work. Women held positions from school teachers to gunsmiths. When America became a developed nation, they adopted the custom of women being inferior and subordinate from Europe. In comparison, during the 19th century companies utilized female labor until the amount of immigrants increased, they were used as cheaper labor and soon it became harder for women to gain careers in factories. In society, women who worked outside their home remained abhorred by the majority of people. It was encouraged for women to present themselves as a “genteel lady of fashion”. The only career that was considered good for women was teaching because it’s perceived that women are natural teachers of youth and could do it better than