Prior to the American War for Independence (1775-1781), a woman's identity was closely tied to her husband's. She enjoyed few rights of her own. With her activities confined to her domestic sphere, she demurely retired to kitchen or nursery when men discussed politics or events outside the home.
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Colonial women in America married, bore and raised children, and limited their social activities to church and neighborhood. Some worked alongside their husbands; a few worked outside the home. Widows and single women often existed as charity cases, either within their families or at the mercy of local do-gooders.
Formally educated women typically came from the upper classes. Their instruction focused on those skills which made them socially acceptable. Music, dancing, French and needlework rounded out an education which included lessons from their mothers on how to run a household. Girls from lower classes received little or no formal instruction, learning their domestic skills from their mothers.
But the American Revolution changed the way Americans perceived women's roles and their educations. Women played important roles in the fight for independence. For the first time, they actively participated in the political arena, a previously male-dominated field.
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Without the support of female patriots, the Revolution might have failed in its earliest stages. (Wood, 2002) Women contributed to the effort in other ways. They raised money for the war effort. They managed their absent husbands' business affairs during the war. They discussed politics openly and were reluctant to surrender that privilege after the war. After the war, the socially-defined weaker sex bristled at admonitions that they should return to their kitchens and leave politics to men. The Revolution, it seemed, had fostered a different kind of revolution on the home front.
The country faced a dilemma. How could it justify a break from tradition and give women the right to an education equal to men's? To complicate matters, women themselves disagreed on the reasons why they should be better educated. One camp believed that women had earned equal status with men in the new nation. The more radical advocates for women's rights argued that women should be well educated, allowing them to forego marriage if they preferred. In the end the country reasoned that since children were first taught by their mothers, better educated women meant better educated children in a democracy which could only succeed with a well-educated populace. This was the compromise which shaped women's educational opportunities into the post-revolution era of domesticity. (Engle, 1976)
The role of women in America in the nineteenth century thus became one of shaping the country's future citizens. Women were the likely teachers of all children, especially those of the lower classes who received little or no schooling. (Jack, 2001) Teaching would always be a low paid profession and, therefore, more suited to women since men were the primary family breadwinners. Women could derive power from within their domestic sphere only if they were educated.
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The American Revolution affected not only political aspects of the country, but social aspects as well. African-Americans and women, two groups of people that had experienced tremendous hardships by white males, began to slowly get the rights they deserved. Despite these initial advances, the fact is that the actual abolition of slavery was not for over another 50 years, and women would not receive the right to vote until the early 20th century. But it was in these 15 years that these two groups of people were able to gain some rights that would lead to the eventual success they would have much later down the road.
Gordon S. Wood: (2002) The American Revolution: A History, Modern Library Chronicles.
Paul Engle: (1976) Women in the American Revolution, Follett Publishing Company.
Peter, Jack: (2001) The American Revolution, Oxford University Press.
