For many years, people of colour were forced into slavery just because of their race. They were made to be housekeepers, cooks, work on farms and build railways. Women were not allowed to vote, work or go to school. They had to stay home and cook, clean and take care of the babies. Little girls could not attend school and had to stay home and help their mothers.
For this reason the only women that were able to work were the ones that were the poor women or the members of the lower class in society. They worked as laborers and domestic servants in factories and houses. There also were some that exercised as teachers and nurses especially during the wars periods. Professions such as medicine or law were prohibited to women. As Gail Collins states in his book When Everything Changed “Most girls grew up without ever seeing a woman doctor, lawyer, police officer, or bus driver” (Collins A.W 7).
Females were controlled by the males in their lives; first, by their fathers, brothers and male relatives and finally by their husbands. Women were expected to find a husband, marry and reproduce and serve her family until they died. Education for women at the turn of the century was a luxury not afforded to many, and if one chose to be single and seek education over domesticity, she was often pitied or ridiculed by both her peers and community. Emily Dickinson is one example of a woman who was able to choose a significantly different path for herself. Because Dickinson was born into a wealthy and affluent family she received the opportunity to be formally educated.
Poor families sometimes abandoned infant daughters in the countryside to avoid paying dowries, the gifts traditionally given by a girl's parents to her husband's family. The practice of allowing baby girls to die, called female infanticide, continued down to the Christian era and had an impact on the size of the female population. Childbearing was dangerous. Tombstones show that the life expectancy of women was 34 years as contrasted with 46 years for men because women often died in childbirth. Some male writers attacked imperial women's education, political power, and sexuality.
Even though the societies that practice circumcision can be very different, in each one the majority of females get little to no education and are simply looked upon as child bearers. In some communities, the husband's family pays a bride price to the family of the woman to be married which gives his family the right to her labor and her children unfortunately she has no right to or control over either. For example, in Somalia the husband's family may have the right to inspect the bride's body prior to marriage, if they wish or are skeptical and the mothers usually check their mutilated daughters to make sure that they are still sealed up. This practice is not meant to be harmful, but to ensure their daughter is pure so that the family is able to receive the bride price. In many cultures, pressure is put on
She was one of four children from her parents, Clotilde and Berndt Danielson, marriage. During the time that the two were married, Berndt ruled with an iron fist and was not affectionate. When he remarried, Berndt had a son named Berndt Jr. The son took center stage and became the favored child. At the tender age of nine, Horney developed a crush on her brother but was rejected and shunned of reciprocated feelings from him.
Disobedience was seen as a crime against their religion. Marriages were arranged to suit the family. Elizabethan women were expected to marry to increase the wealth and position of the family and then to produce children - preferably male heirs. There were no careers for women and there were no schools for girls, so the majority were illiterate. If a woman was born from a respected, high-status family, then she may be given the privilege of being able to receive home tutoring.
She would give her child to servants to hold and never cared for her. When Johanna’s first son was born, she was delighted. Unfortunately for Johanna, her first son died at a young age. Catherine felt resentment towards her brother and did not care for his death. Johanna then pushed insults on Catherine constantly.
Shotgun marriages lead to divorce or unhappiness in the relationship. For example my aunt was force to marry due to pregnancy at a very young and lived with an abuse, unloving husband. It is no longer crucial to marry because of pregnancy and have society debase you. The Division of labor between men and women has developed equality and helped better society in many aspects especially for women. Traditional expectation of a women being home, taking care of the children and depending on her husband financial income, but now women
In higher society, especially among the royalty, it was extremely common for a child to be shipped off to a wet nurse for the first year to two years of their lives which deprived them of the motherly contact they needed. In the eyes of society at the time this was considered a good thing because in their minds the link a son feels to his mother isn’t good and will only lead to him been less masculine than he needs to be. As a result of this separation, at this point in Lear’s life he is beginning to feel the need for that motherly type of love again which is why he puts the ridiculous demands on his daughters; he is simply trying to find who would be the best to take care of him in a motherly way during his declining years. Hamlet’s issues are more sexual in nature, but they ultimately stem from the same source. In his case one could argue that his bond with his mother was not pressed down enough, which has led to him feeling an Oedipal sort of love for his mother as he tries to fulfill his father’s wish of vengeance against Claudius.