Women's Role In American Society

The role of women in the United States has been determining since the country was still thirteen colonies. The role in the past defined women to do only their own domestications and household works, such as cleaning, finding some foods, taking care their children and farms, and sometimes their stores. They had no any rights in their property, including to be a head of household, even their husbands were gone or passed away. They also did not have any chances to be one part of politics, and they had no any political voices as much as men did in the society. After the colonies became the United States, however, these women took more active roles in the society by taking care their households instead of their husbands and being participated in

Most of women accepted their new positions as heads of households, making household decisions, and ran their businesses by self. Some of them became one of war supporters: they were active business partners, spies, or producers for the army. And a lot of women participated in the war as militaries to supply troops. One of those women was Deborah Sampson Gannett “who had dressed as a man and served for seventeen months in the Continental Army” (Gillon, pg.305). Some widows ran their husbands’ businesses and stores or remarry quickly after their husbands died. Some of them made a demand for a gender equality and revised some laws. Some states revised and wrote new property and inheritance laws to “[break] the traditions of arranging marriages and careers for their children…” and “[give] women more authority over their own and their children’s futures” (Gillon. pg.306). During the 1780s, there were many women tried to out-speak about personal independence. One of those women was Judith Sargent Murray insisted that “women should be taught to depend on their own efforts…” and she also thought that there will be “a new era in female history” (Gillon,

This merchant hired American people, especially women and young children, to work on the daily production of cotton cloth. “Women and young children spun yarn in the main mill, while handloom weavers—men and women—turned the yarn into cloth…” (Gillon, pg.326). However, some women were still working and running their own farm households. Many women in the North passed on their knowledge about farming to their daughters. During the same year, many young women performed the same tasks, such as spinning and producing the cloths, as well as their mothers and grandmothers. One of those young women was Elizabeth Fuller “spent [her times] spinning and weaving…[putting] up other household and garden duties” (Gillon, pg.328). In addition, many industrious women and children in some areas, such as New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, produced woolens and dairy products for neighbors and