Women in the 19C United States of America: Went To the Beauty Salon Today

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Went To the Beauty Salon Today

Went to have my hair cut today. Beautiful salon full of beautiful people, all young enough to be my children & grandchildren. All size 2 with lovely tans. I was at least as old as the women in these paintings by John Singer Sargent, but I was dressed in my "relaxed" black yoga clothes & those funny little flats with the elastic across the top to hold them on so you won't lose them if your memory fails or your legs give way. All the size 2's were dressed as the up & coming young professionals, that they are. And then the staff sits you in front of a full length mirror, while they "evaluate" your hair & face before they cut away. There is no where to hide & no forgetting just how old & out of shape you are. And I don't even own glorious clothes like these as a sort of a meager consolation...

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Mrs Ernest Hills

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Mrs Gardner in White

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Mrs Henry Phipps and her Grandson Winston.

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.”