European
Widows in Mercantile times
European widows during the mercantile times, there was a great stress on the importance of status back in
those times (Bennett and Froide, 1998; Simonton,
1998). Great importance was placed
on marital status and whether a woman had been married and was now a
widow or whether the woman had been married at all (Bennett and Froide, 1998).
However, I find that seems quite odd to me as I am a single woman who has
children and has never been married. It makes me
wonder how I would have felt about these issues had I been in my situation back during the mercantile
times. In the first source I read there was discussion of how women were viewed
by society and that their roles revolved around keeping the
home and rearing the children as well as taking care of the needs of their
husbands(Bennett and Froide, 1998). Reflecting on this I find
it quite amusing and I cannot imagine my life revolving solely around keeping up
with my household and the needs of my husband and children. I personally have
aspirations and the need of a working life. I do much more
than those things for me and my children and I feel that I do not need a
husband or a man for that purpose.
There was less of a focus on the actual marital
relationship in the second source as it was a later
time period to a certain degree that this information
was based on. There was much discussion of women working, spending less time
child rearing and having fewer children allowing them
to return to work sooner. Many women, including widows, had entered the workforce and it was
accepted at this time as this was right around the time of the World War I (Simonton, 1998). After reading a few pages of this
particular article I found myself feeling that this was something I was slightly
familiar with as it seemed to me that it was the start of a time where women
were beginning to be accepted in society as equal to
men to some degree. To me, this showed where
the life we live now had begun and was headed towards our type of society we
live in today.
Angela
REFERENCES
Simonton,
D (1998) History of European Women’s Work: 1700 to the Present
Bennett,
Judith and Froide, Amy Single women in the European Past,
1250-1800
Hey Angela,
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny how societies work from one decade to another. Now a days you have people who are divorced, widowed, single, and re married and people do not really seem bothered or even care for that matter, it is simply a status. I find it interesting that society back then put a lot more pressure on people to stay together, and I wonder to myself if that was a good thing or a bad thing? See for me I understand that divorce can be a good thing for those who are in an abusive relationship or other circumstances, yet I feel now a days people just get married for the heck of it then divorce a few years later. This kind bothers me in a sense that people are not even trying to work out their issues, and that society has completely swung a different way in our current society. I wonder if society put a bit more pressure on these issues, if possible people would learn to talk about issues and deal with them, instead of simply walking away.
Christine-NRC
Women often forget how far we have come. There are still complaints made about gender oppression, and rightly so; there is still ways to go to achieve gender equality. But to think that at some point in time, not only were we disincluded in the definition of human beings as part of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, but women were literally objects. I am happy to be living in the time that I am, when my father doesn't trade me off to some fifty year old farmer for a few cows and some food to feed the rest of the family, while at eighteen, I am urged to have as many children as I can despite my own aspirations. We've come a long way.
ReplyDelete~Valerie