DBQ+4+RS

Women's roles and opportunities in the family, the workplace, and society, were greatly effected by the "market revolution" and "The Second Great Awakening." Women's roles in family life were simple; get married and stay home and take care of the children. They weren't always accepting of these set principles. Before the Revolutionary War, women were expected to stay home and utilize their abilities in "republican motherhood" to instill into their children. This was socially accepted and gave women the gratification that they were more significant than being a servant for the family. Women, in direct correlation to "The Second Great Awakening," became "...more accepting of religious convictions," according to Charles G. Finney's comments from a religious experience in New York, 1831. Women such as Susan B. Anthony and Dorothea Dix pushed for reform in areas such as an end to slavery, imprisonment for debt, criminal codes, and treatment of the mentally ill. They wanted their voices to be heard over these important issues of the time and felt they could make a difference in the new republic. The role of women in the workplace changed dramatically from pre-Revolutionary War to post-Revolutionary War. Before the Revolution, women weren't even considered for jobs because they were completely and totally expected to take care of the family and do the necessary deeds to keep a stable and healthy household. Women of the time made a revolution of their own. They weren't allowed to fight in the Revolution but disguised themselves so they could feel the gratification in knowing they helped in the cause of liberation for Great Britain. Women were allowed to help in the war effort as nurses but never as infantry. Following the war, women became more and more available to job opportunities. With Eli Whitney's interchangeable parts invention in the 1840's, the industrial side of manufacturing came into full bloom. Women were given jobs in textile factories in the north and were hired for cotton purposes in the south. An excerpt from a letter of a Lowell mill girl in 1844 states, "We work from five o'clock in the morning until half-past twelve in the afternoon during planting season. During picking season, we are there almost all day until 7 o'clock." But this wasn't the case for all women of the time. Once you married, you were expected to move out of the factory and back into the home. Socially, women for quite some time were moving to getting the rights they "truly deserved." Pre-Revolution, women were caretakers of the family and