The Social Role of Women in America - Essay Example

American Women and the Marriage Introduction Throughout American history, the of marriage has played a significant role in the definition of women’s status in society, both as a constraint and a liberating factor. The nature of marriage as a social convention, as in the case of other social conventions, such as the law, customs and religion, would as a matter of course tend to impose upon personal freedoms and choices. However, unlike the law, customs and religion, which for the most part exert equal weight upon individuals of at least the same class, marriage tends to impose more weightily upon the woman rather than the man. Feminists see this as a direct consequence of women’s childbearing role, and consequently deny the performance of this role as a means to liberation. Marriage appears, however, to be more complex than women’s ability to procreate, and the evolution of marriage throughout history has been generally thought to impact on the larger role of women in society. My personal view is that changes in how marriage is viewed did not create the transformation in women’s social roles, but rather that women have taken the initiative to redefine their roles and thus change the face the of the marriage institution forever. Marriage in early American history In the New World, marriage was very much similar to that in the European continent. The attractiveness of women to men for the purpose of marriage centered upon their health and potential for reproduction. Younger women usually commanded a higher price than older women in cultures that required a transfer of economic goods from the man’s family to the woman’s. Thus, women who are viewed as having a higher reproductive value usually attracted men who possess a higher economic value (Low, 2004). The reference to women’s reproductive value somewhat smacks of the treatment of women as commodities, which is not far from the truth in the context of early Americana. Even in native American history, marriage was not merely a private matter decided by two persons, but a matter of public concern which involved the entire community – or nation, as in the case of the Cherokee Nation. As of the early 1800s, Cherokee legislation recognized the importance of women in the preservation and propagation of the Cherokee tribe, and thus sought to control the choice of their spouses as a matter of political action. This is particularly true on the issue of intermarriage with non-Cherokee men. It happened that the choice of a Cherokee woman to marry a non-Cherokee man (usually a white man) was a display of disapproval or displeasure in Cherokee men, and which fact therefore tended to influence or modify their behaviour. Cherokee men therefore “had better behave and stop drinking whiskey” if they wanted to be worthy of a Cherokee wife (Yarbrough, 2004:400). This study labelled the threat as manifestation of a “subtle power play” wherein the choice of a spouse was the manner by which women wielded power. Therefore, the passage of Cherokee legislation limiting women’s choice of a husband to Cherokee men was seen as a disempowerment of women, where women’s freedom to choose was sacrificed in order to serve the “higher interest” of preserving the existence of a nation. The legislation, strangely enough, pertained to women in its application, rather than to every Cherokee individual. The woman’s (limited) option to choose a mate in the Cherokee culture may not be commonly found in other cultures. In other societies, polygyny (one man having more than one wife) was the norm, particularly where survival depends on hunting and contending with the extreme elements of nature. In such cases, cross-cultural polygyny is preferred, with some wives/ mates being women captured in offensive encounters with other communities or tribes – quite opposite to the rationale of the Cherokee legislation. Women’s apparently submissive role in a marriage, however, does not mean that they are without power within their union, family, or society. In a study on marriage systems, it was found that women exerted an informal influence (a “voice” or “say”) in the establishment of important alliances and formulation of critical decisions. Women have more formal and informal influence especially in two conditions: (1) in monogamous societies where a convergence between spouses’ interests is more likely, and (2) in situations where women contribute more to the subsistence base than do men (Low, 2004). Marriage during the American colonial period Because of the perilous existence of the pioneers in the New World, where survival in a hostile environment required spouses to depend heavily upon each other, women during the colonial period fulfilled a more active and powerful role in society than their European counterparts (Westerkamp, 1999). Furthermore, because the men in the family tended to pass away quite suddenly and at inopportune times, probably due also to the tenuous living conditions they contended with, more women found themselves successors to their father’s or husband’s property, and proved themselves competent managers thereof, as well as of their own properties (Boyd, 1999). The designation of women as successors in their wills was evidence that the men at that time, customary public attitudes notwithstanding, privately regarded their wives as competent partners in the management of the family’s economic resources (Speth, & Hirsch, 1983). Thus when widows found themselves at the helm of the family’s livelihood and properties, they often chose not to remarry, as they found themselves doing well without a man’s participation. Marriage in contemporary American society During their twenties, it is common for women who find spouses more or less of the same or similar age, religion, racial class, educational attainment, and generally other demographic characteristics. Women who tend to delay marriage until after 30 are faced with a shrinking pool of eligible males, thus heightening the competition among women who have never yet married, creating a shift towards non-typical marriage patterns. Above thirty, while nonmarriage also becomes increasingly an option, those who do get married tend to marry men much more their senior, more often previously married, and more often with a lower educational attainment than the women’s own (Lichter, 1990). The value of a woman shifts from that of the purely reproductive, in terms of the children she might bring, but her value as provider as well, in terms of the resources she could contribute to the children’s upbringing. Recent trends towards marriage later in life are justified by the fact that women work before marriage, establishing their earning potential and thus increasing their resource base. Interestingly, empirical studies show a positive correlation between women’s economic resources and their fertility, their success in producing offspring. For instance, it was determined by researchers that women on welfare tend to have very low fertility (Low, 2005). The decision to marry and to stay in a marriage is but one aspect of the literature on contemporary marriage in the United States. With one out of every two first-time marriages ending in divorce, the matter of the termination of the marriage is likewise of academic interest. Half a century ago, a couple’s divorce was regarded as a social stigma, and families usually kept the matter of a couple’s separation as secret for as long as possible. Today, it is almost a foregone conclusion that divorce is likely, such that people with money normally draw up pre-nuptial agreements on property partitioning, and divorce law has become an attorney’s most lucrative undertaking. Part of the higher incidence of marriage break-ups has to do with the changing demographics of women. There is firm evidence that women’s educational attainment upon entering the first marriage is positively linked to a higher level of marital dissolution. It appears that the higher career investment of young women upon contracting their first marriage contributes to chances that the couples may experience status inconsistency and clashes in career demands (Ono, 1999). Educational attainment prior to marriage strengthens a woman’s individualistic values, independence, and economic base, so that the man she eventually chooses to marry has a higher level of expectations to contend with. The educated, independent woman also feels more free to decide to end a marriage because she is aware that she is capable to make a life for herself, even in the matter of having biological children, because of modern methods of conception that preclude the act of sexual intercourse (e.g. sperm banks and artificial insemination). Conclusion The foregoing discussion on how the marriage institution has influenced the social role of women brings one observation into the fore: women’s changing social roles have, on the contrary, shaped the course of evolution for the marriage institution. Women’s roles, on the other hand, had taken off from the needs of the living conditions the native Americans and early American settlers found themselves in. Much of this was economic, such as the need of women to work side by side and in equal standing with their husbands in the matter of the management, if not the title, of their property and economic resources. Economic also was the growing independence of women as they gained access to higher education and, thus, economic wealth in their own name. Some of it was cultural; the restriction placed by Cherokee legislation on women’s choice of a husband, for instance, was made in the name of the preservation and transmission of their race and culture to the succeeding generations. While the gradual change in women’s roles was, in a sense, facilitated and even hastened by the demands of the raw environment, women themselves provided the motive power by which they had expanded beyond the limitations of their status as imposed by social convention. The changes in women’s roles occurred before, not because of, changes in the institution of marriage, although in some instances, the marital status provided the opportunity, such as widows coming into the ownership of their deceased husband’s estate. At present, women’s personal circumstances continue to define the directions marriage – and the annulment or divorce therefrom – continues to take. Where once women desired and even needed the marriage contract to gain title to their husband’s properties and thus secure their economic survival, today women’s empowerment allow them to secure their own future without the need of marriage. According to some observers, because of this marriage will eventually fade away as a social institution. If ever this were to happen it will be only with the consent, or even initiative, of women. References: Boyd, K. ed. (1999) Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, Vol. 2. Chicago, Illinois: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers Lichter, D. T. (1990) “Delayed Marriage, Marital Homogamy, and the Mate Selection Process among White Women.” Social Science Quarterly (University of Texas Press), Dec90, Vol. 71 Issue 4, p802-811 Low, B. S. (2005) “Women’s lives there, here, then, now: a review of women’s ecological and demographic constraints cross-culturally,” Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 26, pp. 64-87 Mintz, S. & Kellogg, S. (2010) Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. The Free Press. Accessed 2 August 2010 from Monroy, D. (2008) ‘Review of Maria Raquel Casas’ “Married to a Daughter of the Land: Spanish-Mexican Women and Interethnic Marriage in California, 1820-1880”’ American Historical Review, June 2008, Vol. 113 Issue 3, p879-880 Ono, H. (1999) “Historical Time and U.S. Marital Dissolution”, Social Forces, Mar 99, Vol. 77 Issue 3, p969-999 Speth, L.E. & Hirsch, A.D. (1983) Women, Family & Community in Colonial America: Two Perspectives. New York, NY: The Haworth Press, Inc. Westerkamp, M. J. (1999) Women and Religion in Early America, 1600-1850: the Puritan and Evangelical Traditions. New York, NY: Routledge Yarbrough, F (2004) “Legislating Womens Sexuality: Cherokee Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Social History, Vol. 38 Issue 2, p385-406 Read More