HOW DID WOMEN REFORMERS BREAK GENDER BARRIERS?

Copy the word REFORMER in your notebook Write a definition of reformer. If you aren’t sure, give it your best guess. Give one example of a person who tried to make reforms in society? PERSON WHO IMPROVES, CHANGES, OR MAKES SOCIETY BETTER

GENDER BARRIER An obstacle or something that prevents progress or success for a specific gender.

CLOSE READ THE QUOTATION BELOW: "The men say we have no business with [politics], it is not in our sphere! I won't have it thought that because we are the weaker sex as to bodily strength, my dear, we are capable of nothing more than minding the dairy, visiting the poultryhouse, and all such domestic concerns. . . . They won't even allow us the liberty of thought, and that is all I want....” Eliza Wilkinson, letter to a female friend, 1782

Complete the following after reading the quotation: Source the document. What is the meaning of the quotation? (Summary) Write your thoughts, ideas, and questions about the quotation. What are some jobs, tasks, opportunities and barriers for men and women living at this time?

Gender Spheres : Behaviors, tasks, and responsibilities that a society considers appropriate for men and women

GENDER SPHERES MEN WOMEN Public life Politics, Work Private life Home (domestic)

PATRIARCHY When men hold the power in society or government and women are largely left out.

LESSON PRACTICE What was life like for early American women? Close read or close view the document you’ve been assigned. Source the document together. Write a 1-sentence summary. Discuss what you see or the meaning of what you read with your partner. **Remember: you’re trying to determine what life was like for early American women. What are some jobs, tasks, opportunities and barriers for men and women living at this time? ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS. Record your reactions and answers on the poster. Use pencil and write your initials. Does the author/artist reinforce or defy accepted gender roles for women during this time period?

“Of all those skills, which more particularly belong to the feminine character, there are none which rank higher, than a knowledge of household duties, for on these are forever dependent the happiness, comfort, and well-being of a family.” --Isabella Beeton Excerpt: The Book of Household Management 1861 (Modified)

“Women ought to have representatives, instead of being governed without any direct share allowed them in the discussions and running of government.” --Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792

“Now their separate characters are briefly these: The man’s power is active, progressive, defensive. His intellect is for thinking and invention; his energy for adventure, for war, and for conquest... But the woman’s power is for routine, not for battle, and her intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision. Her great function is praise … By her position, and place, she is protected from all danger and temptation.” John Ruskin, Lecture, 1865

“One sex is formed for the more difficult exercises of government, the field and providing for the family. The other, for the management of the household, and for spreading happiness through social life. When a woman quits her own responsibilities, she offends her husband, not merely because she forces herself into his business but because she departs from that sphere which is assigned her in the order of society. Each sex feels a degree of pride in being best qualified for a particular position, and a degree of resentment when the other intrudes upon their rights.” Anonymous, 1788, “An Address to the Ladies,” American Magazine

“When I took up my pen I decided to leave the field of politics to those whose proper business it is to think or theorize and to react to these boycotts and protests; but the events that have lately taken place are so alarming and so interwoven with the enjoyments of social and family life as to command the attention of the mother and the wife.” --Letter from Mercy Otis Warren to Hannah Winthrop, 1774

“I know you do not make the laws, but I also know that you are the wives and mothers, the sisters and daughters, of those who do, and if you really suppose you can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly mistaken.” --Angelina Grimke-Weld, 1836

"You see madam I ignore the opinion that women make different politicians. It may be true in general, but the present age has given at least one opposite example … When remarks or opinions are just and honorable, I think it unimportant whether they flow from a female lip in the soft whispers of private friendship or whether thundered in the Senate in the fearless language of the other sex." --Mercy Warren to Catherine Macauley- Richards

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