Unmarried women were mainly employed as school teachers, although some worked as maids and some sold quilts and knits from their home. Widows with children were required to work, maintain the household, and look after the children, who were employed at the youngest possible age to help their mother financially. Very few widows ever remarry, while almost all widowers remarried within a year of their first wives death. The “second wife” was required to raise these children like they were her own.
In the mid to late 1800’s, massive amounts of women began working outside of the home. Many began working in the textile and garment industries for about half the wages as their male counterparts.
Originally there were no labor laws in place for women; many worked in stuffy, teeming factory buildings for as long as twelve hours a day. However when the first labor laws were passed, they blocked many women from the jobs they held. They were no longer allowed to work more than eight hours a day and could not work between the hours of six o’clock A.M and eight o’clock P.M. In some states women were prohibited from lifting anything over fifteen pounds in weight. In the same period of time, the medical profession slowly opened to women. Almost all doctors were males; however, females filled the positions of nurses, assistants, and office work.
After work, many unmarried women held a second job, such as housekeeping, which was one of the few jobs which were not mentioned in the Labor Acts. The married women, unlike their husbands, could not spend time with friends in the pubs after work; they went home and prepared the diner for the family. Needless to say, recreation time and free time in general was severely limited for women.
Some single women, whom were forced to live a life of poverty, turn to prostitution. These women dressed in “trashy, suggestive and out-of-style” clothing and loitered inside of and outside of local taverns. The drunk were usually targeted by the prostitutes, for they were considered to be “easy targets”. Many of these women usually lived together in houses they purchased completely; many were afraid that renting their home to prostitutes meant inviting the devil to live there.
Women were subject to discrimination in the courts as well. A woman who murdered her husband was convicted of homicide, usually after a speedy trial with a male judge or an all-man jury. The woman was deemed crazy and locked up, or, in some cases, lynched in private. A man accused of murdering his wife was usually confined for a short period of time; many were let out in under a year. The courts usually rule that the act of murder was a crime of passion.
Much has changed in the last one hundred fifty years. Women are now regarded as equals to men. Women are now paid equally and are allowed by law to hold any job they wish. Women are no longer solely responsible for their children’s upbringing and well-being. Many women doctors practice medicine while there are now male nurses. It is quite obvious women and everyone else has it much better in the year 2002 than they did in 1852.
