In the 17th century, a woman was to be seen, not heard. She was to honour her husband, not argue with him. She was to be a helpmate, not a companion. Girls were denied the rights of education; marriage became the only career open to them, and the introduction of child-marriages followed. This deprived the girl of any chance of education that remained to her, and launched her upon the responsibilities of motherhood and the cares of managing a household, when she should still have been in the nursery playing with her toys.
By the 18th century great progress had been made. She was learning to look upon man as friend and comrade, not as master. To secure a husband was the aim of every young woman; “to secure him, keep yourself in the background, and carefully hide any knowledge you may possess,” says a maiden lady in Scotland, writing to a young friend in the year 1760. Women were not particular as to what kind of a husband they secured, as long as they escaped spinsterhood. A woman was a success if she got a husband; she was a failure if she did not. Learning interfered with matrimony; therefore girls were uneducated.
The tradition of obedience and docility had been carefully taught and maidenly modesty were virtues. She was enveloped and swaddled in traditions of servility, and it was peculiarly difficult for her, without education, without economic independence, with the law against her, with the Church urging her to submission, steeped as she was in traditions of obedience and humility, to throw aside the shackles, to defy authority, and to respond to the creed of Individual Rights.
The French Revolution in 1789 furthered the emancipation of women by inspiring new hope. Up until the 17th century women’s work had been done in the home, but as the factory system took hold they were gradually forced out of the home to work in the factory. This produced in women the consciousness that they were individuals with interests and needs apart from men.
The Industrial Revolution taught the working woman that she had a separate existence from men. Education raised the intellectual standard of all women and gave them self-respect. Woman learned to be ashamed of ignorance and to feel justly angry that the doors of learning had been barred against her. She became articulate and demanded rights.
By the 18th century great progress had been made. She was learning to look upon man as friend and comrade, not as master. To secure a husband was the aim of every young woman; “to secure him, keep yourself in the background, and carefully hide any knowledge you may possess,” says a maiden lady in Scotland, writing to a young friend in the year 1760. Women were not particular as to what kind of a husband they secured, as long as they escaped spinsterhood. A woman was a success if she got a husband; she was a failure if she did not. Learning interfered with matrimony; therefore girls were uneducated.
The tradition of obedience and docility had been carefully taught and maidenly modesty were virtues. She was enveloped and swaddled in traditions of servility, and it was peculiarly difficult for her, without education, without economic independence, with the law against her, with the Church urging her to submission, steeped as she was in traditions of obedience and humility, to throw aside the shackles, to defy authority, and to respond to the creed of Individual Rights.
The French Revolution in 1789 furthered the emancipation of women by inspiring new hope. Up until the 17th century women’s work had been done in the home, but as the factory system took hold they were gradually forced out of the home to work in the factory. This produced in women the consciousness that they were individuals with interests and needs apart from men.
The Industrial Revolution taught the working woman that she had a separate existence from men. Education raised the intellectual standard of all women and gave them self-respect. Woman learned to be ashamed of ignorance and to feel justly angry that the doors of learning had been barred against her. She became articulate and demanded rights.