Early Nineteenth-Century Gender Roles

During the early Nineteenth century, a new type of woman began to emerge; she was one who wanted more from life, and more rights and freedoms for women. This change within feminine culture, in part, is due to the women’s suffrage movement, and was defined by the changing culture of World War II era America. During this post World War II-time period of 1880- 1945 gender roles began to change both within the dynamic of the family and outside of it, women were also breaking new ground within the workforce. During the early Nineteenth century a change in the role of women came about culture within the culture of America; women began to become independent of the income of their husbands, if they had one, and began to experiment with jobs that …show more content…
The definition of what makes a woman a woman or a man a man was challenged, by certain women who would cross-dress, or have male reproductive organs; this also brings up the question of what defines one’s sexuality. For example, in 1901 a woman by the name of Caroline Hall, dressed up as a man to fit in to contemporary society, and maintained a relationship with a wife (Hoffert 392). This example of cross-dressing, brings up the two issues of gender identification, and sexuality; which were hotly debated topics in the early nineteenth century, due to the fact that many saw it as an affront their religious view and opposed any decision regarding them. The change of view for these topics comes from the way that the groups that participated in either cross-dressing, or same sex relations, were viewed. They were viewed as deplorable beings within society, and often were viewed as something less than human, and were therefore subject to treatments that befit their status from society’s view. This maltreatment of these people, often lead to them trying to blend into society and go unnoticed, like in the case of Caroline Hall. The main reason that society, at the time found them deplorable, was that many people were scared, and believed them to be a threat to their gender conventions. Another case like Caroline Hall’s was that of a woman from Virginia by the name of Thomasine Hall; the case challenged gender conventions even more so than the case of Caroline, due to Thomasine being a hermaphrodite. This more directly challenged gender norms of the time; most people in Virginia at this time were not considered to be very pious, but most considered the act of cross dressing to be a sin; due to this idea of her habits being a sin she was often asked if she was a male or a female, to which she would reply and say she was both, much to the consternation of the townsfolk