Blog#3

Blog #3

Section A

1. During the Revolutionary era, women such as Sarah Osborn broke traditional gender roles by leaving the home to work with men in the battlefield. These women challenged the expectations of women’s roles which placed women inside the home and left them solely in the private sphere of society. Although women’s roles shifted dramatically from private to public, their participation and contributions remained domestically dominated. Women on the battlefield cooked, washed, and mended for their husbands and other soldiers, leaving their position greatly gender specified. These domestically dominated contributions, though vital, set limitations on the full development of new roles for women. Another limitation to these challenges was the relatively small number of women actively participating outside the home. Since women inside and outside the home still served traditional gendered roles, the challenges remained solely a challenge and were rarely, during this time, exceeded with success.
2. As major consumers, women’s activity in the revolutionary era can be considered ‘political’ in many ways. Women played a crucial role in the boycott of British goods, including tea and cloth. Not only did women encourage others to participate in the bans, they also provided alternative options for cloth by working communally in spinning bees. As ‘Daughters of Liberty”, women found that their roles as consumers greatly contributed to economic welfare and had a direct impact on the daily lives of all. Native American women, often Iroquois women, were also politically active. Not only were they “highly visible in the war effort” (77), they also served as mediators between tribes and often the British. Their role as influential leaders is also strongly viewed as political. European women faced different challenges during the revolutionary era. They had difficult decisions to make regarding their faith, loyalty to husbands, and following their own beliefs surrounding the war. Many were associated with their husband’s allegiance, though some fought to distinguish themselves from their husband’s views and actions. Pacifist women often struggled with religious beliefs, such as the Quakers, who were against war. Tories faced many hardships including rejection and loss of land and personal goods. At times, these women would serve as spies for the British, furthering their political attributions during war time. Another group of European women, the Patriots, acted publicly under the name of the “Daughters of Liberty”. The writings of many of these women often talked about freedom, sacrifice, duty and civic virtues, and the honor they felt to be a part of the revolution.
3. During the Revolutionary era, women’s roles though still mostly domestic, expanded outside the home and into the public sphere. Their active role in the betterment of society, whether through education, assisting in war time, or taking on more duties while husbands were away, proved that women were capable of achieving much more than their gendered role might have predicted. The legacies these women left to future generations were of both challenge and hope. They left challenges in the roles they were not successfully able to change and hope for the continued growth and independence of women. Though not always acknowledge by men or fully by society, the women and young daughters of the Revolution slowly started to step outside of their preconceived roles and into the making of their own; and that is the greatest legacy of all.

Section B

4. Although both Rush and Murray see the education of women both important and beneficial, they have different views on the purpose and reflected outcome of such education. Rush believes women should be educated for the greater good of men and for social responsibility. He thinks that women should be educated so they can not only raise their children with higher consciousness but also be of help to their husbands. Murray’s focus on education for women placed more importance on the women’s ability to become more independent. She felt that women needed to be able to take care of themselves both emotionally and financially and education would permit these needs attainable. The proper education of females differed from males greatly. While men were expected to achieve educational wealth through the studies of natural philosophy, language, and mathematics, women were expected to achieve marginal educational wealth though reading, geography and arithmetic. Men’s education which focused more on worldly affairs also differed from the domesticated education most women received. Rush believed these tailored educations would more so benefit women in “their perceived future roles” (125).
5. Rush and Murray both agreed that the education of women would benefit the greater good of society and the idea of a Republican Motherhood stood for just that. Rush’s beliefs connects more smoothly with the idea of the Republican Motherhood because his focus on women’s education is more based on the benefits of the family. He agrees that “women had vital roles in educating their children for their duties as citizens” (95) and that an educated woman would also be better able to assist her husband. Murray focused more on the independence of women and their ability to care for themselves. She also noted, however, the importance of teaching ones children to do the same. She believed that children should be educated so they could fully function as a part of society with or without male help. Both understood the importance of a women’s role inside the home but also addressed, as does the Republican Motherhood, the social and academic education needed for a women to fully thrive and give back to her community.