Women in the 19C United States of America: Mary Cassatt's (1844-1926) Children in Summer

Friday, October 28, 2022

Mary Cassatt's (1844-1926) Children in Summer

A little girl may begin, at five or six years of age, to assist her mother; and if properly trained, by the time she is ten, she can render essential aid. From this age until fourteen or fifteen, it should be the pricipal object of her education to secure a strong and healthy constitution, and a thorough practical knowledge of all kinds of domestic employments.Catherine E. Beecher, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, 1843

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). Children Playing on the Beach 1885

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). Children in a Garden 1878

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). Child in a Straw Hat 1886
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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.”