Even under historical constraints, women of history did not accept total un-autonomous control of their fate. The women of ancient Rome took to the streets in protest of a double tax based on their gender to support an ongoing war. They successfully argued that they were already doubly taxed, by their wealth and by the sons they supplied for the war. After winning the repeal of the tax, they returned home to their children and traditional duties.

But why? Why did it stop there? Educated Western women throughout the most recent two thousand years such as Christine de Pizan and Olympe de Gouges (Declara

This separation of economic roles quickly deteriorated the previously acknowledged economic importance of women. When forced to leave the home for wage earning employment they were given lower wages, often doing work that was equally demanding and exhausting (as male jobs). Quickly following this loss of economic position, assumptions of inherent feminine weakness and vulnerability begin to arise. One principle on which businessmen and many male workers readily agreed: Respectable adult women should not work. This ideology was denied by Anna Jameson, whose writings for many years centered on:

tions of the Rights of Women) have called for the emancipation of women and female education. While arguing for the Biblical re-interpretation of female roles based on a new understanding of the Hebrew and Christian Bible, they didn’t get much farther than public ridicule and unfortunately for de Gouges, the guillotine. Even with the acknowledgement of such radical ideas, until the Woman’s Movement of Great Britain and the United States, woman’s place in society remained mostly unchanged. The fact that there was a Women’s Movement at all is noteworthy, but the fact that it has spanned continents, society stratifications, and gender (the movement had many outspoken male supporters) is unique in the whole of human history. This social revolution is an example of a unique bonding by the female sex, regardless of wealth, social status, or nationality in order to better their collective fate. They took steps with dogged determination to demand rights equal to the male establishment, and thereby changing thousands of years of status quo.

I. THAT the Female Frame of Person and Mind tends chiefly to fit and qualify the sex for domestic Life only.

The Protestant Reformation could be described as the icebreaker for the indoctrination of the Scientific Revolution. When Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the Wittenburg Church, the unique autonomous authority that was introduced by Hebrew monotheism was re-established. The Vatican’s strict interpretation of the Church’s authority and thereby the denial of autonomy of the individual was broken. Luther’s interpretation of personal responsibility and interaction with God drove a wedge between the church’s political and social power. He went directly against the authority of the church by claming that only true communion with God would take place by individual study of the Scriptures. After many years of bloody struggle, Protestantism was accepted by the populace (grudgingly by the Vatican) and in effect, gave a new freedom to women. Because of Luther’s insistence on individual study of the scriptures, a new lay intelligentsia developed, helped along by the invention of the printing press.

Not only was a woman expected to be able to support herself by her labour, the household depended on her. The fulfillment of this ideal is shown by Mrs. Blodgett’s example. Rebecca Whitmore Blodgett’s husband bought, a month before their marriage, a rocking chair and six dining chairs. In the months following the wedding, Mrs. Blodgett brought to the store forty palm-leaf hats whose credit value was slightly more than the cost of the chairs. Women integrated this “outwork” into their daily lives. An example of this prevalence of outwork is shown by a quote by Henry Bradshaw Fearon in 1818,

Some topics in this essay:
Industrial Revolution, Mechanical Philosophy, Wittenburg Church, Conception Feminism, Female Virtues, Rousseau French, Christian Bible, Jesus Christ, Woman’s Rights, Rights Movement, industrial revolution, scientific revolution, protestant reformation, traditional roles, woman’s rights, political social, mechanical philosophy, economic importance, study scriptures, economic importance women, people women, hebrew christian bible, individual study scriptures, frame person mind,