Women and Work
When many people think of women and work, they think of the past few decades, when more and more women have entered the workforce in a professional capacity. But, a deeper look into women’s history shows that women were no strangers to hard work, even before they found widespread employment outside the home.
Domestic Work
During the 18th century and before, women were primarily employed in the home, doing domestic tasks. Without many modern conveniences, this domestic labor was time-consuming, difficult, and seemingly never ending. Women who lived in rural areas made many of the household’s general goods, such as candles, butter, soap, and garments. All women washed, dried, and ironed clothes by hand, without the aid of machines. They also fed farm animals, canned food, cooked, and cleaned the home.
Early Work
The turn of the industrial revolution in the 1840’s and the growth of the market economy opened up some new areas of employment for women. Some worked as merchants in small shops, selling women’s clothing, or running a boarding house. In certain areas, women might even run their own shop, selling soap, candles, linen, and other goods to sailors or travelers in a port-side town, for example. Young women found factory work in New England mills, making cloth or paper and canning food items.
Teaching and Education
Teaching has long been a professional area open to women, even as it was considered uncouth to work outside the home in other capacities. In the early 19th century, a growing middle class wanted their daughters educated through girls’ school, and young, unmarried women found employment as teachers in elementary and secondary institutions. While many of these schools focused on “women’s work” like sewing and proper etiquette, they still offered a great opportunity for young women who preferred not to work in a mill.
Women and War
Wartime often forced women out of their usual domestic roles, out of necessity. With men gone at the front, women were needed to run factories and even take active roles in the army. In the Civil War, women worked as nurses and tended the homes and businesses that were left behind by men.
During WWII, women entered factories in unprecedented numbers, especially married women. Although the “Suzy homemaker” image of women in the 1950’s would seemingly undo the progress made during WWII, the idea that a married woman could have a job outside the home was firmly rooted in the female psyche.
Professional Careers
During the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, advocates worked to overturn the idea that a woman’s place is in the home (or a mill or war-time factory), and that women should pursue their own professional careers. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique brought up the idea of female discontentment and a the image of the “trapped housewife.”
The post-war housewife of the ‘50’s proved an unfulfilling and boring role for many women, and feminism was re-born in the following decades. After the birth control pill was introduced, birth rates fell, and more women began to question women’s relegation to the kitchen. Radical feminism called for an end to this “women’s slavery.”
While many branches of feminism resulted from the women’s lib movements of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, they all encouraged women to explore professional careers outside the home. Women began taking more jobs in offices, and in previously male-dominated fields like government and science firms.
Sources:
The Growth of Feminist Ideology. (2011) University of Houston.
A Woman’s Work is Never Done. (2004) American Antiquarian Society.