Women in the 19C United States of America: Button, button, who's got the button?

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Button, button, who's got the button?

From VINCENNES WEEKLY GAZETTE, Vincennes, Indiana
November 24, 1866

Bad News for Unmarried Ladies — New Inventions

Among the new inventions is button which is fastened to cloth without thread. It is said to consist solely of a button with a wire to be inserted into the cloth like a cork-screw, and then pressed down flat, so as to form a ring to hold the button to its place. As this invention will enable men to keep the buttons on their shirts, it is calculated to do away with wives altogether.

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.”