9781422274064

and upper-class women had an easier time, because they could afford servants, or in the pre-Civil War south, slaves. The hard labor of managing the household was shared. But with few exceptions, American women were consigned to the traditional role: keeping the hearth and home. The development of labor-saving devices, both on the farm and in the home, relieved the daily drudgery of women’s lives. Industrialization brought job opportunities for urban women outside the home. More women went to school, even to college, though the latter concentrated

Education beyond basic reading and writing was relatively rare for women who lived on the frontier. For those who did go on to attend a high school, often the only career available to women was as a teacher, until they were married and had a family.

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Gender Equality in the United States

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