The+Lady+and+the+Mill+Girl

J. R. C.- If one were to trace major events that led to the shaping and development of the women’s rights movement, dire information would be found in the times of 1800 to 1840. Though this period holds many of the most decisive changes that occurred in the status of women, Gerda Lerner makes it very clear in her article “The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson”, that there is an absence of material and interpretation on this time. This absence makes it seem as if history overlooked the shifts in economic, political, and social statuses of women.

Before the early period of nationhood and the American Revolution, many aspects in the working field were much different than during the 1800’s. During the colonial era, women in America were much smaller in numbers, thus making their implied assistance and inherent value in a community much greater than that of the Age of Jackson. Women did not necessarily partake in the hierarchical standings as individuals in colonial societies, but rather found themselves labeled as wives and daughters, which was fairly similar to the Age of Jackson, because women maintained a subordinate role in society. This idea was also present in their hard labor during the colonial era, for their work was merely auxiliary and was for the benefit of the family, rather than the women herself, allowing no shift in society. As the American Revolution replaced the colonial hierarchical concepts with an egalitarian ideology during the 1800’s, a major shift occurred making privilege of occupations based on skill rather than inherited status, allowing mobility for all groups of society, with the exception of women. In saying this, one could argue that women had more inherent value during the colonial era, thus, in this shift, women were forced to be subdominant.

Lerner gave an example of some effects of the shift to professionalization in medicine to ultimately show the outstanding effects, which occurred in all of the professions. This example proved that as women attempted to involve themselves in certain professions, discrimination, unfair treatment, and outrageous acts committed due to male dominancy followed. Women were forced to engage themselves much further in an attempt to acquire a higher profession than men, which compared to the colonial era was unheard of. Though women could not achieve any political positions during the colonial era, professions such as being a doctor or running a shipyard were much easier to obtain, as compared to the Age of Jackson. Men became increasingly discriminatory during the Age of Jackson, which in turn brought around the beginnings of women suffrage. checked


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VB –In today’s society, physicians are not judged by their gender. In contrast, during the 19th century women were confronted by limitations in the field of medicine. Gerda Lerner postulates that restrictions on women limited their opportunity to pursue a medical career. As exemplified in the admissions to medical schools, women were not inducted into these high institutions of learning. Women like Elizabeth Blackwell, who inadvertently gained admission to Geneva Medical College and graduated first in her class, was unable to secure a position in any hospital. While in the 19th century women in the field of medicine were disparaged, colonial women were valued and encouraged to practice their profession. An underlying reason for this change was the adaption of European ideology which altered the colonists’ perception of the roles of women. Men during this era were judgmental concerning the value of professions. Therefore, they allowed women to venture into industries they deemed demeaning, Gerda Lerner is one of few interpreters of this historic perspective; therefore, opposing viewpoints are difficult to substantiate. Possible dissentions in theory include the idea that men in medicine was so popular, that women were pushed to alternative professions. Such an assertion is supported by the number of women who depended on the mills for employment. Since the Age of Jackson another transformation has occurred. Unlike the standards of the 19th century, modern day women are accepted in medical professions. Medical schools look for intellectuals, men or women, to support an egalitarian ideology. LM - The decades of 1800-1840 were a dynamic, fluid time of social and economic status change for American women. Seeing the glimpses of both extremes, the factors that cast the status of women in this post-revolutionary America can be categorized into two distinct themes. At first, women's status in society was shpaed by rising professionalism. Later, after the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, the causative factor in women's rights was their social status. Exploring a general timeline of how women's status was constantly shifting bank and forth during the era, the //Lady and the Mill Girl// introspectively outlines the lineage of women's status. First discernable in the emergence of professionalized jobs, such as law and medicine, women met with increasingly limited opportunities to partake in positions that required education. Because it was outlandish for women of the early 19th century to receive higher education, they becamde cut off from positions that were being standardized. With the growing availability of graduate schools in medicine and law, men became the more attractive holders of these formerly gender-indifferent positions. While the nation began to require licensing for positions such as midwifery, women were automatically exluded from these fields they once were a plausible part of. This transition to requirements of education for certain job practice, led to the relegation of women to jobs that were uneducated and lowly. Matching nicely with the Industrial Revolution's demand for unskilled laborers, women's decreased professional status made them excellent candidates for factory jobs. It is fascinating to note how the American Industrial Revoluion could have been guaranteed success from the start due to America's ready supply of women looking for unskilled jobs. Women also tended to become teachers at an alarmingly higher percent than men did. This is attibutable to a sheer lack of people in that profession and a cheapness with which the government went about education. By the end of the Age of Jackson, the Industrial Revolution was humming along nicely and women's next stage of status divisions was just starting to take shape. With many of the labor force women being employed in factory jobs at significantly lower pay than males in the same positions, their was a new social distinction made. Women who did not have to work were distinguishably of higher economic and social success (or perhaps had husbands who were such), where as women working the unskilled mill girl jobs were clearly of lower success (for they would have not chosen to foresake their duties to the household to working unless it was an economice emperative). This new method of assigning status according to if they workd or not was non-universal, as it was enduringly considered respectable for women of the country side and of the frontier to contribute to their family income. Lower class, uneducated women's jobs and higer class women positions (as in no jobs) set the early seentiments that eventually would demanded change. SFH – The time period of 1800-1840 is one in which influential changes occurred in the social statues and working positions of American women. Yet as Gerda Lerner illustrates in “The Land and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson” the economic, political, and social status of women have been surprisingly unexplored; as if history has disregarded this crucial change in women’s advancements and impediments. Although it may seem there were few things in common between the society lady and the mill girl, both women were disfranchised and isolated from the vital centers of power. In the colonial period in American history women (it could be argued) were valued more for their responsibilities than in following eras; because in colonial America women’s work was not only approved but regarded as a civic duty. In addition women acquired occupations far from the regular realm of the home such as butchers, silversmiths, and doctresses. Yet by 1840 women’s independence was beginning to change. The Revolution has substituted an egalitarian ideology for the hierarchal concepts of colonial life; forcing women to subsidiary roles, for women’s work outside the home was no longer met with social approval. Although it can be considered the political statues of women never actually deteriorated because women neither voted nor stood for office, the increased suffrage of men made the gap of enfranchised voters and disfranchised women more obvious. Following this ideology Suzanne Lebsock’s article “Women Working” illustrates how in the Age of Jackson women by no means choose domestic work over gainful employment, or that women sought paid work only when driven to it by threat of destitution; but rather women worked (or tried to) to gain equality and suffrage. All in all it these changes in women’s social status and working positions would take more than six decades to bring women a means of power in American society, female suffrage. checked

*** RIL- Before the practice of medicine was professionalized, women had some presence in that field. In fact, medicine becoming professionalized was one of the reasons that it became a less accessible career to women. When women were practicing medicine somewhat successfully, there had been few medical schools or other regulations in the field. This is what allowed them to enter that career. Since there were seemingly few requirements or regulations, there were few things to stop them from becoming “doctoresses.” So some women did become physicians; and they usually were not chided for their participation in the profession either. Women had a place in medicine before it was professionalized. Therefore, it is because medicine was professionalized that women lost most of their role in medicine. As more qualifications for being a doctor were recognized, women were continually excluded from acquiring the qualifications to be successful; which is why many could not practice fruitfully despite their talents. A degree from an approved medical college, a job in a hospital, or referrals from other doctors became the indicators of a successful professional physician. Most medical schools did not accept women, but there were other eclectic schools in which they could earn a degree. Yet even after earning that degree, many were not admitted to hospitals and many were not given customary referrals for their service. These things hampered their ability to become successful doctors. Many women were confined to care specific to women and children which eliminated many career paths in medicine. The opportunities for male physicians were far greater than the opportunities for female physicians. For this reason, women had less of a role than men in this field. Perhaps if there were fewer requirements for fruitful medical practice, women would have maintained their place in the medical field. There definitely would have been fewer obstacles preventing them from pursuing the career of their choice. Thus, it stands to reason that women’s role in medicine would not have changed because that occupation would not have been professionalized. One of the things keeping women out of medical careers and restricted their place in it was because it was professionalized. *** AJJ- 1800-1840 was a time of great change for America not only politically but socially as well in particular for women. According to Gerda Lerner in “The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson,” the events that took place during this period directly shaped the women’s rights movement. In the early days of America, women had neither the rights nor ability to have jobs that white men possessed. Women in the colonial aged filled simple roles as wives and mothers remaining in the household for the most part. There was no effective attempt at reaching equality that occurred. In the 19th century American men became increasingly discriminatory leading to women questioning their subordinate role. From 1800-1840 small but meaningful efforts began to arise to get women to vote including the avocation of women’s suffrage by Frances Wright, a Scottish immigrant who was listened to in an extensive series of lectures. The biggest feat for women during this period of time though was the right to property once they married. This was the first major accomplishment in the women’s movement and gave women something to see as a victory in their struggle. These instances of early attempts at gaining rights could have been a significant reason that the Seneca falls convention of 1848 was the success that it was. *** CJD- Reform movements and social change in the early and mid-19th century had a major effect on the role of women in society, chiefly their professionalization. In “The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson,” Gerder Lerner discusses failed attempts at sexual equality in the workforce with the fields of medicine and law. When those professions became high-paying, male exclusivity pushed women in other directions. Nursing and teaching were the two jobs that women not only participated in, but were the majority jobholders. Views surrounding nursing were not especially positive; its tasks were equated to those of a glorified housewife. Women were able to occupy this profession in large numbers because of a labor shortage. Teaching became the other defining female job for the same reason. However, in the case of education, it was found that women could do the job better than men. They were natural teachers of youth, but were only paid 30 to 50 percent of male wages. Role expectations for women in the 19th century are relatable to those today with migrant workers. Professionalization of teaching during the period of 1820 to 1860 put women on track to becoming equal members of society, but it was a slow process that kept them below men in terms of social status, despite being better suited for certain roles.
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