THE INTIMATELY OPPRESSED

The Female Fight for Equality

NERY LEMUS4/3/2014

CHS 245: BuelnaSpring 2014

(14004)

ChS 245 OL-Spring 2014-14004

MALE DOMINANCE

Zinn states from the very beginning, “The

Explorers were men, the landholders and

merchants men, the political leaders men, the

military figures men.” (103)

Zinn highlights the historical stress of men’s

dominance within realms of Exploration, Politics,

Economics, and Defense. Men held all realms of

power while the women were overlooked. This

demonstrates a skewed power structure forcing

“the invisibility of women.” (103)

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Zinn refers to “standard histories.” These infer and read ownership, patriarchy,

white supremacy, racism, sexism, and abuse of power among other things.

Males used the characteristics of slave women as a “convenience.” They were

used at the same time as servants, sex mate, companion, and bearer-teacher-

warden of his children.” (Zinn 103)

Women were influenced by Christian teachings and English Doctrine. Male

Dominance was seen in doctrine such as “The Lawes Resolutions of Women’s

Rights” where it states “a married woman, Her new self is her superior; her

companion, her master…” (Zinn 106)

Education helped perpetuate male dominance. While 90 percent of the white

male population were literate around 1750, only 40 percent of the women

were.” (Zinn 110)

WOMEN INVISIBILITY

Women invisibility was shared with

Black Slaves.

Therefore, what was a black slave

woman?

They faced double the invisibility, hence

double the oppression. (Zinn 103) Due to

their biology, the ability to hold children,

on top of their skin color, it was used

against them as a control mechanism to

hold their place in society.

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FEMALES OF EARLY SOCIETIES

Earlier societies treated women more as equals than the civilized white society that

came later. (Zinn 104)

The Zuni Tribes of the Southwest were matriarchal where the women owned the houses,

the fields belonged to the community, while everything produced was shared equally

between men and women. Women could also divorce their husbands when she wanted and

keep their property. (Zinn 104)

The Plains Tribes of the Midwest saw their women as

“healers, herbalists, and sometimes holy people who gave advice.” (Zinn 104)

When they lost male leaders, women would rise in power as chieftains.

A woman, ultimately, had the power to defend themselves

with the practice of using knives and bows.

Women were treated with respect and their communities

gave them a more important, valid role within society. (Zinn 104)

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FEMALES OF EARLY COLONIAL SET TLEMENTS

First settlements were comprised of almost

entirely all men. According to Zinn, “Women

had to be imported as sex slaves, child

bearers, and companions.” (104)

Ninety Woman came on one ship to

Jamestown in 1619 as “young and incorrupt”

who sold “with their own content to settles

as wives.” (Zinn 104)

Women in the early colonial years came as

young indentured servant, teenage girls who

lived the life of slaves. The only difference

was an end that existed.

Poorly Paid and Often treated harshly with

no privacy or food. (Zinn 105)

Sexual Abuse of Servant Girls was a common

practice from masters. (Zinn 105)NERY LEMUS

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUSBANDS

AND WIVES

As Julia Spruill claims, Husbands

reserved the right to give her

“chastisement” without

“permanent injury or death.” (Zinn

106)

Husbands, once married, owned

his wife’s personal property and

any other income she may earn.

They combined their wages and all

wages “belonged to the husband.”

(Zinn 107)

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FATHER ROLE WITHIN THE FAMILY

The Father was the head of the family. He dominated the

household in all regards. Ultimately, they made decisions

and gave orders to their wives and children, and it was their

job to follow through.

As expressed in The Spectator, “Nothing is more gratifying

to the mind of man than power or dominion; and as I am the

father of a family… I am perpetually taken up in giving out

orders, in prescribing duties, in hearing parties, in

administering justice, and in distributing rewards and

punishments… In short, sir, I look upon my family as a

patriarchal sovereignty in which I am myself both king and

priest.” (Zinn 108)

It was a crime for a woman to have a child out of wedlock.

The Colonial Court Records highlight cases of “Bastardy.”

The father ultimately unscathed by the law. (Zinn 107)

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FEMALE ROLES IN SOCIETY

Woman were not just home keepers. When they

were home keepers, and when they were not

bearing many children, they worked as

outsourced seamstresses, at home, for factories in

the nearby area. (Zinn 111)

Women had jobs as shopkeepers, innkeepers,

bakers, tinworkers, brewers, tanners,

ropemakers, lumberjacks, printers, morticians,

woodworkers, and staymakers among others.

(Zinn 111)

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LACK OF FEMALE REBELLION

Women never rebelled because of the constant

watch of their masters, isolation from other

households and other women, ultimately

preventing support from developing. (Zinn 108)

Women that spoke up and had the ability to do

so were women of status that already had a

platform to speak more freely.

Working Class Women had very few means of

communication, and “no means of recording

whatever sentiments of rebelliousness they may

have felt at their subordination.” (Zinn 110-111)

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CULT OF TRUE WOMANHOOD

Women were being pulled out of the house and

transferred into a industrial environment.

Clothing developed for both the rich and middle class,

and it was imitated by the poor. (Zinn 112)

Women were expected to move with the times, while

remain in their place as a result of the male-female

power matrix.

Religion was used as a control mechanism to give her

“that dignity that best suits her dependence.” (Zinn 112)

Women would bare a special virtue of sexual purity

while the men would sin due to biological nature. (Zinn

112)

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The woman’s job was to keep the “home cheerful, maintain religion, be

nurse, cook, cleaner, seamstress, flower arranger. A woman shouldn’t

read too much, and certain books should be avoided” as “Such reading

will unsettle them for their true station and pursuits, and they will throw

the world back again into confusion.” (Zinn 113)

The notion of “true womanhood” represents the mindset and expected

goals for all women living within that society.

“True Womanhood” ideology worked by creating some stability in a

growing economy.

It gave woman a “sphere” to supply the needed space, time, and

preparation for a new kind of life.

Despite the “cult of true woman hood,” it still kept woman at a inferior

level. Woman were still not allowed to own property or vote. When

woman worked, it was not equal pay. Typically it was ¼ to ½ for the

same work that a man earned in with the same job. (Zinn 115)

THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT

Women from the middle class, who were barred from higher education,

started to profit on their teaching professions. Teaching allowed them to

read and communicate more, therefore developed newer ways of thinking.

Literacy doubled between 1780 and 1840 and women began writing for

newspapers, magazines, and entire ladies’ publications. (Zinn 117)

Women became health reformers and civil rights activists. The movement

capitalized on organizers, agitators, and speakers forming a force by the

1840s.

Women fought to enter all male professional schools in realms such as

Medicine. (Zinn 118)

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Women gained traction in their own

movement by working within the anti-

slavery societies around the country.

These events “carried the movement

for women for their own equality

racing alongside the movement

against slavery.” (Zinn 122)

After the exclusion of women at the

World Anti-Slavery Society

Convention, the vote to exclude

women forced plans to congregate the

first Woman’s Rights Convention at

Seneca Falls.

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Women Rights Convention: Seneca Falls, NYAfter an announcement that took place in the Seneca County

Courier calling for a meeting to discuss the “rights of women,”

three hundred women and some men congregated on the 19th

and 20th of July. (Zinn 123)

The result of the convention was a Declaration of Principles

that was signed at the end of the meeting by thirty-two men

and sixty-eight women, using the language and style of the

Declaration of Independence. (Zinn 123-124) Within the

Declaration came a series of grievances and resolutions

resisting against notions of “true womanhood.”

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The resistance in the 1830s up until

the 1850s provided a platform for

woman to resist the notion of a

“woman’s sphere” and the resistance

of submission to the chauvinistic,

male dominance.

The fight for women fueled

movements for all kinds including

the imprisoned and the insane.

The fight was not restricted for only

white women, it sought equality for

all women. (Zinn 124)

REFERENCES

Zinn, Howard. A people's history of the United

States. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classic,

2005. Print.

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