Margurite Berard

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History 204 Sp 08 | Political Life | Cultural Life | Economic Life | Essays of 1876

The Depictions of Women in 1876

Women in 1876: at the Cusp of a Great Beginning

On July 4, 1876 women suffragists, among them Susan B. Anthony, presented the Declaration and Protest of the Women of the United States, which outlined the oppression that faced women of the United States in 1876 and called to correct these oppressions.1 This declaration was written in response to the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, which granted rights and liberties to black men, not women. Those two amendments ignited the second wave of feminism in the United States that would eventually lead to suffrage in 1920. In the year 1876 women were just beginning to band together for the long struggle for suffrage. During this year, however, the nation had two contrasting perspectives of women. First there was the urban outlook, which consisted of women working outside the home with a more outspoken stance on their beliefs. Women during this time were just beginning to work in places such as factories and as a result forever changed the dynamic of the contemporary family. The other perspective was that of the rural areas such as Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In Carlisle, women were still expected to act as they had before the Civil War. This Victorian outlook delayed the progress of women in the rural hinterland much like Carlisle. Many sources portrayed this opinion, but it was a newspaper in Carlisle, American Volunteer, that portrayed it in the most significant manner.

Before the Civil War, the United States’ perception of women was more of a Victorian concept. That is, women were seen as “saint-like” and were expected to stay at home to take care of the household. Once women were married all their rights, previously maintained by their fathers, were legally written off to their husbands. In the 1830s many women fought hard to obtain legal rights in marriage. This developed into the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, where women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony inspired women to fight to maintain their rights as people, not property in marriage.2 However, during the Civil War women’s rights were put on hold as a result of the conflict over slavery and rights for blacks. Although much changed occurred during this time period, the roles that women played did not change much in rural areas.3

Although suffrage was a right women had demanded since the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, it was never the top priority of women’s rights activists until much later. At Seneca Falls, women issued the “Declaration of Sentiments.” 4 The “Declaration of Sentiments” listed the many ways women were oppressed in American society. It maintained that “all men and women are created equal,” and that married and unmarried women should be granted more rights.5 Suffrage became a larger issue for women during the Reconstruction movement. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments granted blacks citizenship and the right to vote. Women were outraged when Congress excluded women from these Amendments. At that point many women, including Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone, dedicated their lives to suffrage6. Unfortunately, women’s suffrage was not granted to women until 1920 with the Nineteenth Amendment.7 Until that time, however, women struggled to obtain this right.

The changing and developing industry in the United States during the late nineteenth century drastically changed to roles that women played both inside and outside their homes. In 1876, the nation was on the cusp of a great Industrial Revolution. Although it had not fully developed, the upcoming revolution changed the roles of families, even in 1876.8 The demands that were impressed upon women changed with the evolving economy and society. The evolution of factories caused families to move to urban areas and women to get jobs. As a result of this, the expectations pressed upon women deepened greatly. Single women, who in prior years were expected to either marry early or stay at home until they married, were now more likely to work in factories. This delayed marriage for many women, as they were working in factories instead of finding suitors. The expectations of married women also began to change around the year 1876. Married women were required to run the household and raise the children as before, but in addition to those expectations, married women were expected to find jobs in factories and labor long days. This changed the family dynamic because children then grew up with absent parents, which lead to a high percentage of crime beginning in the late nineteenth centuries.9

Outside of factory labor, women were beginning to make progress outside of the home in the late nineteenth century. Women started to get jobs in the late nineteenth century to bide their time between school and marriage.10 Jobs were very limited to women, with teaching as the most popular among the few options. In cities, very few women worked outside of education and factory labor. However, prominent women in the nineteenth century broke many barriers for other women to succeed. In the 1840s Elizabeth Blackwell became one of the first women to work in professional fields dominated by men by being the first women to obtain a medical degree. Even though there was much progress, a setback occurred in the judicial field in 1876. The Supreme Court denied the admittance of women to the bar association on a national level.11 However, between the years 1870 to 1890 every single state independently admitted women to the bar association. Such breakthroughs allowed women across the nation to obtain higher degrees in various fields and work as the first female professionals in the nation.

Although many cities allowed women to obtain professional degrees, Carlisle and other small towns that were secluded from the developments of city life in 1876 lagged in the cultural developments that occurred during that time. As a result of the lack of communication between Carlisle and big cities, the changed perception of women was delayed. It is true that Carlisle was well connected to the rest of the nation with many turnpikes that ran through the town, but it was still considered a frontier by many.12 In 1876, big cities still perceived women as homemakers, but developing technology and the factories that were built required many to work before marriage and even after marriage for many. Consequently, women in cities adopted a more independent attitude. These women sought higher education and married later in life.13 In contrast, women in Carlisle did not have the opportunity to work in factories because there were few. In fact, Carlisle in 1876 was not considered a “place of industry, but a place of homes.”14 Women were not viewed as intelligent people, but rather people were shallow. For example, many excerpts in the humorous section of the American Volunteer, a local Carlisle newspaper often wrote about the stupidity of women. On February 17, 1876, the newspaper wrote:

“A lady remarked to a popular divine that his sermons were a little too long- “Don’t you think so?” said she, “Just a little?” “Ah! Dear madam!” replied the divine, “I am afraid you don’t like the sincere milk of the Word.” “Yes I do.” said she; “but you know the fashion nowadays is condensed milk.” 15

This excerpts in the humorous section, although meant for laughs, correctly portrayed the perception of women in Carlisle in 1876. Women were anticipated not to care about substantial subjects such as religion, but instead were expected by many to be obsessed with the latest fashions and trends such as condensed milk. In addition, many articles and ads in the American Volunteer that were about fashions, clothes, or anything insubstantial were directed towards women. On May 11, the American Volunteer wrote an article titled “Fashion Notes.”16 This article focused on latest fashions of dresses for the summer of 1876, including fringes.17 It is very obvious that this article was not directed towards men, unless they were interested in buying dresses for their wives. The focus on women in this article and others is a representation of the hinterland's perspective that women were frivolous people who believed that it is more important to know the latest fashions than the latest bill passed by Congress.

Women not only in Carlisle, but also in other parts of the nation were thought of as delicate people who were inferior to men. On April 27th, the American Volunteer published an article that reveals that women in the United States have the smallest feet.18 The article begins with, “I noticed that at Washington there is an excitement about the small feet of the fair sex.” 19 The author, who is unknown, called women the “fair sex,” which immediately sends out the connotation that women were fair or delicate people that need to be taken care of. The article then went on to compare women’s feet to men’s feet, stating that “…the wife of none of our leading lawyers who has a foot to rival them.”20 The author of this article was able to use feet as a symbol of men’s perceived superiority over women. In addition, the use of lawyers rather than “common folk” is a portrayal of the author’s perception that lawyers were superior to other occupations, such as factory work or farming. It is humorous to see that while women in cities were laboring hard in factories, towns in the countryside thought of women as fair people with small feet.

While most articles written in the American Volunteer portrayed women as dull, other articles, although very few, portrayed women as they had been previously portrayed in the days of the frontier. In the early nineteenth century, women were often portrayed as tough as a result of "rouging it" on the frontier. On March 2, an article titled, “A Women of ‘76” told a story about a women who attempted to defend her house the occupation of soldiers during the Revolutionary War while her husband was off fighting the war.21 In this story, a woman named Mrs. Bell was portrayed as strong willed, although she eventually gave in to the needs of the general.22 This article reverted back to the idea in Carlisle that women were strong willed human beings. It is true that eventually she was forced to give in to the general and sacrifice her house, but for an article that painted a strong portrait of women to be published in Carlisle in 1876 was almost unheard of. This article signifies the fact that the people of Carlisle were beginning to change their opinions of women back to the idealized "rough women" of the frontier.

Carlisle, like many other small towns in 1876 had a different perception of women than cities. This could have been attributed to the fact that Carlisle was displaced from the center of society, thus the perceptions and point of view of many who lived in Carlisle in 1876 was considered old-fashioned. Also, Carlisle had not yet developed into industrial society which allowed those who lived there to maintain their ideals that women did not have to work. Either way, those who lived in Carlisle in 1876 upheld the belief that women were not bothered by substantial topics such as the government or religion, but instead were only concerned about lighter topics. This opinion of women was different in cities at that time. Inn cities, there were higher expectations of women and consequently women were held to a slightly higher degree. Although women in the year 1876 as a whole were not treated with much respect by many throughout the nation and women who lived in Carlisle and towns removed from the city atmosphere were treated as fragile women with little sense of intelligence, the nation as a whole was on the brink of many happenings that would forever change the perspective of women .

Bibliography

“A True Boy Story,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), May 4, 1876.

“A Woman of ’76,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), March 2, 1876.

“American Women Have the Smallest Feet,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), April 27, 1876.

“Fashion Notes,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), May 11, 1876.

“Humorous,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), February 17, 1876.

Hymowitz, Carol and Michaele Weissman. A History of Women in America .New York: Bantam Books, 1978.

Katz, Jonathan N. “The Invention of Heterosexuality.” In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, edited by Paula S. Rothernberg, 69-80. 6th ed. Worth Publishers.

“Marriage Ceremonies,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), February 17, 1876.

McElroy, Janice H. Our Hidden Heritage: Pennsylvania Women in History. Washington, D.C.: the Pennsylvania Division of the American Association of University Women, 1983.

“Mrs. Jones Elopement,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), March 23, 1876.

Randall, Vicky. Women and Politics. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982.

Sanders, Beverly. Women in American History: A Series, Book Three. Massachusetts: Education Development Center, 1979.

Sigerman, Harriet. Laborers for Liberty: American Women 1865-1890. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History, edited by Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, et. Al. new York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

“The Story of a Russian Princess,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), April 12, 1876.

“Woes of a Husband,” American Volunteer (Carlisle, PA), February 3, 1876.

Pictures

• Pictures are compliments of:

Hymowitz, Carol and Michaele Weissman. A History of Women in America .New York: Bantam Books, 1978.

Sigerman, Harriet. Laborers for Liberty: American Women 1865-1890. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.