Women's Private Lives

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the private lives of American women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as daughters, wives, and mothers. It examines whether their lives meshed or clashed with their participation in the wider public world of education, work and politics. It explains that women in Victorian times and beyond were expected to conform to society's mores, which did not include rights for women. If a woman stepped outside the norm, she did not "fit" in polite society, and she was often ostracized and abandoned by those around her.

From the Paper:

"Women in the Victorian age, which lasted from1880 to 1900, were placed on pedestals, as long as they managed to conform to society's dictates about how women should act and dress, took care of their family and their home, and did not make any waves, socially or politically. Women like Susan B. Anthony, who campaigned vocally for women's rights, especially the right to vote, and Ida B. Wells, who campaigned tirelessly for anti-lynching laws, were outside the norm, and suffered because of it. Society ostracized them because they had "masculine thoughts." Anthony was arrested for committing the "sin" of voting in an election, and Wells had to leave her native South and flee to the North to escape persecution and violence because of her stand on black rights. Even Elizabeth Cady Stanton, mentor and dear friend of Anthony, could not convince her own father of the worth of her work for women."

More papers on Women's Private Lives:

• Book Review # 28131 : "Patience and Power: Women's Lives in a Moroccan Village"
• Book Review # 3837 : "Reviewing "Women in Ancient Egypt"
• Essay # 86569 : "Homer's Valuation of Women"

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