Gohar Blogg #3

1.    During the revolution and the Civil War, the traditional views regarding women’s role in society faced various challenges. These challenges were imbedded in different aspects of colonial women’s life. On the economic aspect women, especially in northern colonies, participated in mass production of homespun fabrics in order to become independent of British imported fabrics. Although the women were the sole producers of these fabrics and they acted as productive members of the economy, their names were never mentioned as the responsible parties for this revolutionary act. Therefore this huge economic contribution was often credited to the colonial family headed by a male and not directly to the women as the producers. During the civil war women’s role was also shifted dramatically from the traditional responsibilities. Their role as the maintainer of the household was challenged when they acted as spies for northern forces, soldiers on the battlefields, and nurses attending the injured. Their husbands often shadowed these women’s heroic actions and fathers influence and they were not given the direct credit as major participants and contributors in the Civil War.

2.    In late eighteen century, most women were classified with their actions, for example female slaves tried to protect their children, Native Americans took care of the villages while their husbands were at war, poor women cooked for the soldiers and the elite women sewed shirts for George Washington’s army. Although eighteenth-century was mainly make diplomacy, some women exercised some choice in the revolutionary era. They acted politically when they flee from slavery or participated in their deliberations or when they chose to be loyalists or patriots. Also their actions caused the middle-class and elite women be more knowledgeable not only in politics, but also in informal spheres of public spaces like churches.

3.    Hardship and poverty were the legacies for many women after the war, but there were always constrained by prevailing assumptions about women’s marginal role in public life. We do not have much info on how the Revolution affected the lives of Native America women, because there is little evidence about these women. Most of the African American women fled to British to achieve their freedom and that was the most important legacy for them. The legacy for white women was mainly hardship and poverty, because most of them were the widows of white army men.

4.    Rush and Murray said that education for women would result in them being more independent, be more self-reliant and even be self-supporting. Murray said she wants her daughters to be thought “industry and order” and also she said that independence should be within their reach unlike reformers like Rush who saw women’s education as a tool for promoting the family and public goods. Proper education for women would be more extensive and useful in domestic life. This was said because this would make the children more aware and they would discover that both their parents are educated and knowledgeable.

5.    After the revolution many activists started saying that white women of the society must more educated. Their idea was that all citizens needed to be more educated in order for them to be able to contribute to the general public.  For example Benjamin Rush supported women’s education, but he wanted to limit them to basic bookkeeping, arithmetic. Supporters of women’s education argued that mothers needed to be well educated to prepare their children, especially their sons, for their duties as citizens of the society. It was also said that women’s education would also influence their husbands.