Gender Roles In History

Throughout history men have been leading the battles, conquering worlds, discovering new lands, but behind every good man is a good woman! So, as I read this week, I learned an enormous amount of information about the diversity of the different roles women play according to where they might live or what era they grew up in. I will address the rights that women had, how they are viewed in society, the comparison between these women and the ones from the New Testament, the evidence to support my claim.

In May of 1804, two men set out on an important journey that would take them across the country and discover new land, but none of it would have been possible without the aid of one woman. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was planned by Thomas Jefferson, in order to explore the unknown in the newly purchased Louisiana Territory, and also to find a water route across the continent. Along the way the group of men met a quiet native, named Sacagawea, whose impact would later have a large effect on the success of their important journey.

In Joan Scott’s article Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, she analyzes the root of gender and its relation to power. Gender is assumed to be directly linked with sex, but Scott asserts that sex and gender are quite distinct; while sex is a biological phenomenon, gender is a socially constructed power hierarchy and it is not biologically predetermined. Gender is used to create and enforce hierarchical relations of power between men and women, and as a result, women become subordinate to men. The hierarchies tend to be accepted as natural, but in actuality, they are socially determined relations that have no relation with sexuality. For Scott (1986), there are four important components of defining gender: 1) culturally common

Throughout history there have been many honorable mentions of women all over the world, from Abigail Adams to Margaret Mead. For example, look at Meriwether Lewis and William Clark; history talks about their expedition across the Louisiana Territory and how they helped expand America, but in truth it was really Sacagawea’s expedition. If Lewis and Clark had gone by themselves they would have gotten lost, died of disease or killed by Indian tribes, however because of Sacagawea’s knowledge of the land, plants and surrounding Indian tribes the expedition went good. How did this Native American woman have all this knowledge? The answer is simple, she learned all of this from her parents. Since Sacagawea’s parents took the time to teach her

Drawing on Joan Scott's "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" and on Alice Kessler-Harris's "Just price, Free Market and the Value of Women", the following questions will be answered, How has the 'equality' of women and men been expressed according to both Scott and Kessler-Harris? Why 'gender' has become a "useful category of historical analysis" for historians? How different (other) historians view 'gender'? What are Kessler-Harris's views on the "equality," "comparable worth" and "equal pay?" Lastly, the importance of the two articles will be highlighted as it relates to the contribution to gender studies.

Sacajawea is a well-known American-Indian woman. Her expedition with explorers Lewis and Clark was extraordinary. She was born in Tendoy, Idaho around 1788. She was a member of the Lemhi Shoshone tribe. At this time, the American territory ended at the Mississippi River. One year after the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition that left from St. Louis, Missouri, traveling through the US Northwest, to the Pacific Ocean (History).

History has always been heavily dominated by men, and for women to earn a spot in history means that they would need to do something extraordinary. In “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History,” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, she points out several famous women in history that fit the mold of extraordinary. Through discussing Mae West, Rosa Parks, and Martha Ballard, Ulrich makes the claim that women rarely make history unless they have broken away from the norms of their society. By explaining the individual historical cases and her own opinion, accompanied by visual representations of her view, Ulrich argues how history dictates who gets a spot in history and who gets forgotten. However, a place in history depends on how out of the ordinary

Sacagawea was part of an American Indian tribe called “Shoshone”. When she was only 12 years old, she was kidnapped by the Hidatsa tribe and brought to their camp. The Hidatsa Indians sold her as a slave to a fur trader by the name of Toussaint Charbonneau. They got married to each other and gave birth to her son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau. Just when she gave birth to him, Lewis and Clark arrived to their area. Lewis and Clark saw how Sacagawea and her husband would be valuable to the expedition so they were added to the crew. She provided the crew with a steady food supply, medicine, and horses. Sacagawea was also a translator if they ever came across other tribes. When the ship crashed, she helped recover some other valuable items

Many of the contributions and achievements women have made in the past have been lost from the history books. However, women have played an important part in the development of human civilization. From leading armies to raising families, women have made countless contributions to human history. In the late 18th century, women finally started receiving recognition for their achievements, and life slowly began to change for them.

In 1803, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned an expedition under the leadership of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the American Northwest. Together, they led the Corps of Discovery, which included men from a myriad of professions, including interpreters, fur trappers, boat builders, gunsmiths, and surveyors. Meriwether Lewis, captain of the expedition, had been trained prior to the expedition by the country best scientists in the fields of botany, zoology, celestial navigation, and medicine. William Clark was elected commander-in-chief because of his invaluable cartography skills, which were essential on trip. His skills helped with mapping most of landmarks and rivers that were encountered on the expedition, and his final map of the Lewis and Clark Trail is accurate within 40 miles and spans a distance of 8,000 miles. Another prominent figure on the expedition was Sacagawea. She spoke Shoshone, Hidatsa, meager French, had knowledge of edible & medicinal plants as well as Native American customs, and was an invaluable interpreter that bargained for resources from other Native American tribes. Her most important contribution to expedition, however, was her presence, a symbol to native tribes of the peacefulness of the traveling party. The expedition was launched for political, strategic, scientific, and commercial aims, instead of seeking riches and Christian converts, as other expeditions in the past have always vied, such as those commissioned by the

In 2007, Laurel Ulrich, wrote Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, from which there is an essay that speaks on history, and how women have been left out. She wrote this as a result of her newfound fame due to a phrase in her 1976 journal article; this phrase would ultimately give her 2007 article it’s name. In her essay, her goal is to write about the lack of women in history as a whole; she then illustrates the type of women who by a turn of fate make it into history. Her point being that on few occasions women are written in history books, and even when they are, they are not the women who lead ordinary lives; most of the history that include women is tied to some groundbreaking or exotic

Sacajawea is a renowned Native American woman who played a significant role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. As stated by Brown, “She turned to dreaming of the future, of what it might hold for Pomp (her son), as she had dreamed of what might lie ahead for her when she had learned she was to be going on the expedition. But it was no dream that she had become a part of history” (110). Although most of her history is unclear, one thing is definite - without the help of Sacajawea, the United States might not be what it is today. According to Lara Marks, Sacajawea “contributed to the success of one of the greatest American Adventures” (0). She truly left a lasting impact on American society and the way we were able to develop into the

They say behind every great man is a great woman. According to Carol Berkin’s book, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independence, the same could be said about revolutions. Often in studies of the American Revolution men take center stage, while women wait in the wings and make brief appearances. Berkin’s book uses the stories of real women, some well known like Abigail Adams and some lesser know like Sybil Ludington, turn the spotlight on to the important role women play in the shaping of the history of the United States.

From prehistory to 1450 CE, in many different and complex civilizations, religion has influenced the gender roles of many societies. From prehistory to 600 BCE, in Mesopotamia, women could own property, maintain their dowry, and even trade. However, from 600 BCE to 600 CE, in Rome, women were completely under the control of their paterfamilias. Than, from 600 to 1450 CE, in the Byzantine Empire, women were constrained to their homes, and when they went out, they had to wear veils over their faces. Religion influenced the gender roles of many societies and civilizations from prehistory to 1450 CE.

Throughout history, women have been seen in many different lights. From a woman’s perspective she is strong, smart, helpful and equal to men. In the eyes of men, she is seen as the weaker being, the housewife, and the caretaker. By looking at the following pieces of writing, one can see that through the centuries, women have struggled to break out of the mold that man had put her in and make themselves known in society as important.