Women in the 19C United States of America: Lady Liberty in 19C America

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Lady Liberty in 19C America

In the 19th century, as the country grew and faced new challenges, Lady Liberty changed to reflect the times.

Lady Liberty with an eagle holding a liberty cap and resting on a shield.

Lady Liberty & a bald eagle sit in a field of stars, each holding a banner declaring E Pluribus Unum. Lady Liberty is fending off an arrow attack with her American shield, while holding a cache of weapons securely beneath her foot.
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A seated Lady Liberty holds a liberty cap on a pole & an American shield supported by images of industry & sea power behind her.

Lady Liberty holds a liberty cap on a pole & an American shield in front of bustling American industry behind her.

Lady Liberty holds the American flag & points toward the future.

Here is Lady Liberty pointing to the future, while holding an American flag & standing on a pedestal engraved with the year 1776, which also supports an American eagle.

Lady Liberty Civil War

Statue of Liberty 1886

After the Statue of Liberty of 1886

1892 Lady Liberty

About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”