Decline of the Patriarchy
Women in the 19th century did not have as many rights or opportunities as men, but an increasing presence of women in the workforce, and a call for better education for women, helped create the decline of the patriarchy, and cleared the way for the women’s rights movement.
50 years after the declaration of independence, the republic had turned into a democracy, where received authority and past experience lost their power. Rural overcrowding and young people moving west instead of staying home had a factor in this transformation and caused a paternal authority decrease in home life. (Murrin) When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in the 1830’s, he noticed an absence is paternal power in most American families. …show more content…
Women started to leave the home to earn wages for their families as seen in Lowell, Massachusetts where young women went to work in textile mills to earn a small wage. There was a sense of solidarity among the women, a realization that they were their own special working class with their own special problems, like having few options for jobs, they could not become dockhands or sailors like men. This powerlessness the women felt helped the devastation of the paternalistic factory system. Over time, the economy was in a decline and the girls’ wages went down, which sparked their anger and most of the workers went on strike in 1844 to protest unfair wages and bad working environments. (Mauryklein) This and other grievances most likely were causes for the writing of the Declaration of Sentiments written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Declaration of Sentiments was written and signed at the Stanton convention the first ever women’s suffrage gathering. It was similar to the Declaration of Independence, but the Declaration of Sentiments was focused on the unfair treatment of women and women’s rights. Also, Angelica Grimké was an advocate for women’s suffrage and argued that women should have equal …show more content…
Benjamin Rush, a doctor who wanted to spread republican values, argued that women be educated to better educate their sons in politics, as quoted in one of his essays, “The equal share that every citizen has in the liberty, and the possible share he may have in the government of our country, make it necessary that our ladies should be qualified to a certain degree by a peculiar and suitable education,to concur in instructing their sons in the principles of liberty and government…” Women were becoming very valued as teachers, which gave rise to employment opportunities in the public school system. Seminaries and other institutions of higher learning had been established to educate women in this career path. Many women interested in the field of higher education came from farms outside of the cities and would go to work first in manufactories to earn the necessary funds to pay for their education. This helped along with the surge of women going into the factories and joining the
Women in the 19th century did not have as many rights or opportunities as men, but an increasing presence of women in the workforce, and a call for better education for women, helped create the decline of the patriarchy, and cleared the way for the women’s rights movement.
50 years after the declaration of independence, the republic had turned into a democracy, where received authority and past experience lost their power. Rural overcrowding and young people moving west instead of staying home had a factor in this transformation and caused a paternal authority decrease in home life. (Murrin) When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in the 1830’s, he noticed an absence is paternal power in most American families. …show more content…
Women started to leave the home to earn wages for their families as seen in Lowell, Massachusetts where young women went to work in textile mills to earn a small wage. There was a sense of solidarity among the women, a realization that they were their own special working class with their own special problems, like having few options for jobs, they could not become dockhands or sailors like men. This powerlessness the women felt helped the devastation of the paternalistic factory system. Over time, the economy was in a decline and the girls’ wages went down, which sparked their anger and most of the workers went on strike in 1844 to protest unfair wages and bad working environments. (Mauryklein) This and other grievances most likely were causes for the writing of the Declaration of Sentiments written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Declaration of Sentiments was written and signed at the Stanton convention the first ever women’s suffrage gathering. It was similar to the Declaration of Independence, but the Declaration of Sentiments was focused on the unfair treatment of women and women’s rights. Also, Angelica Grimké was an advocate for women’s suffrage and argued that women should have equal …show more content…
Benjamin Rush, a doctor who wanted to spread republican values, argued that women be educated to better educate their sons in politics, as quoted in one of his essays, “The equal share that every citizen has in the liberty, and the possible share he may have in the government of our country, make it necessary that our ladies should be qualified to a certain degree by a peculiar and suitable education,to concur in instructing their sons in the principles of liberty and government…” Women were becoming very valued as teachers, which gave rise to employment opportunities in the public school system. Seminaries and other institutions of higher learning had been established to educate women in this career path. Many women interested in the field of higher education came from farms outside of the cities and would go to work first in manufactories to earn the necessary funds to pay for their education. This helped along with the surge of women going into the factories and joining the