American Revolution's Impact On Women

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The lives of women were effected in two major ways during wartime. The first and most obvious effect that war had on women, is not having a husband at home to take care of the task conceptualized as a “man’s job,” which forced women into new roles. Secondly, women gained a temporary political voice. These two major effects each had their own long term consequences that varied based on which war was being fought. During the War for Independence women filled the roles of men and ran the households, kept shops open, worked for wages to support the family, and other “manly task.” The roles that were typically filled by men were left open as the men went to fight in the war. Since many of these roles were crucial to the survival of the family, …show more content…

The women moved back to their previous roles in society of taking care of the domestic affairs and being subservient to their husbands. In some cases, the women remained in the role they took during the war, but this was typically due to the death of their husband and not having another man to rely on to make decisions for them. The overall impact of the American Revolution on women’s roles in society was very limited, the women ended up back to domestic life and staying out of the “man’s …show more content…

This is seen with the Petition for Universal Suffrage in 1866. The petition is a result of the political voice that women gained during the war due to not having a husband around to “keep them in check.” The petition ask that the government of the United States grants women the same rights that men had at the time. The idea would not have come about without the activism that came before and during the Civil War. Before and during the Civil War, women’s groups such as The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society saw that not only were black people slaves to white men, but white women were slaves of a different sort to white men. In Sarah Grimke’s “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes,” we can see these ideas written in the text but not directly stated. Ideas such as these were brought out and eventually resulted in the Petition for the Universal Suffrage of Women

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