The Golden Age
In the essay "The Myth of the Golden Age" by Mary Beth Norton, Mary did not agree with historians that is was a "Golden Age" for women during the colonial period. She feels that women's lives outside the home were severely limited. Mary felt women never achieved a status later to be lost. The colonial period, even comparatively speaking, was not a golden age for women. During the colonial period most white women were expected to devote their chief energies to housekeeping and to the care of the children. As husbands where expected to support them by raising crops or working for wages. Women also did some outside chores such as gathering fruits and vegetables. They also made clothes for their family. Only the wealthiest women who had servants escaped some of these labors. Native American women had similar work roles. They did not do the spinning of wool or weaving but they did make clothes by tanning and processing the hides of the animals their husbands killed. Like their white counterparts the Native American also drew a division between the domestic labors of women to the public realm of men. Black women were more inclined to work both in field and in house. More often black women engaged
" What kind of golden year was it for black women who where slaves and worked out in the fields along with there husbands. They also had the opportunity to attend school. It should not be considered the Golden Age for women because they out numbered men 6 to 1. Important information was passes on by person to person mostly at the local taverns of the county courthouse, both of which were male bastions. Was this also considered part of the "Golden age"? Yes, they may have had special privileges by carrying their masters' baby such as "lighter work loads and separate houses". " Next is the assertion that women's economic role gave them a powerful position in the household. The first argument by historians asserts that a scarcity of women worked to their advantage. Women also did not have the opportunity to get the same education as men. But as Mary Beth Norton states, "Evaluation of women's position depends on what aspects of their experience are relevant ton an understanding of their social and economic position, for no one would claim that colonial females exerted much political power. "Men did not talk about finances with their wives and women did not meddle with politics or economics". It is shown that women did not have much powerful position in this area. When looking back at America during the colonial era, it is seen that women were primary shapers in the world of marriage, child-raising and household duties.
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Acceptance Essays
