Women's Lives Before They Had Rights
- Women could not benefit from a formal education because colleges and universities refused to accept female students. This changed in the latter part of the 19th century. By 1870, an estimated one-fifth of American college and university students were women, according to the Women's International Center. Upper-class girls were traditionally educated at home by governesses, while their brothers went off to university. Subjects were restricted to those deemed appropriate for females, such as reading, writing, French, needlework and proficiency on the piano. Girls from a more disadvantaged background usually received no schooling and, typically, could not read or write, forcing them to go into jobs in service, or work as seamstresses or laundresses. Even educated middle-class women had limited job prospects, and typically worked as teachers or private governesses.
- Women were denied anesthesia during childbirth because clergymen believed that it was against God's will. They justified this by the Biblical decree that "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Anesthesia was officially administered in childbirth for the first time in America in 1848.
- New York state passed the first Married Woman's Property Act in 1848. Prior to this, married woman had no property rights. Once married, a woman's property legally passed to her husband, to dispose of as he wished. This meant, for example, that a man could sell a property that previously belonged to his wife to pay off gambling or other debts. The new legislation gave married women who had inherited property the same rights as single women, and paved the way for similar legislation through the U.S. However, women still had limited rights to property acquired while she was married. In the 1870s, the states passed legislation giving women legal rights to marital property, although a woman was only allowed to manage the property if her husband died.
- Women were perceived as fragile and delicate in the 18th and 19th centuries, which nurtured the belief that they were unfit for demanding physical and intellectual work. Men were expected to be gallant and chivalrous toward women, although this behavior was often restricted to women who were wealthy and titled. The 19th-century writer Charles Lamb, in his essay, "Modern Gallantry," noted that aristocratic men, known for their gallantry toward women of their own class, often treated poor and defenseless women with ridicule and contempt.