Puritan Women S Role In Society

Puritan Women's Role in Society: Beyond the Myths

The image of the Puritan woman often conjures up a stern, silent figure, shrouded in drab clothing and dedicated solely to religious piety and domestic duties. While elements of this image hold some truth, it drastically undersells the complexity and significance of Puritan women's roles within their rigidly structured society. This comprehensive exploration delves beyond the stereotypical portrayal, revealing the diverse experiences, subtle agency, and unexpected contributions of women in Puritan communities in 17th-century America. We'll uncover the realities of their lives, examining their contributions to the economy, their participation in religious life, their struggles against societal limitations, and the lasting impact they had on the development of American society.

The Domestic Sphere: More Than Just Housewives

The prevailing narrative often confines Puritan women to the domestic sphere, portraying them primarily as homemakers and mothers. While this was indeed a significant aspect of their lives, it's crucial to understand the crucial economic role they played within the household. Puritan women were responsible for managing the household economy, which often included spinning yarn, weaving cloth, making clothes, preserving food, brewing beer, and tending gardens. These weren't mere domestic chores; they were essential contributions to the family's survival and economic stability. Their skills were highly valued, contributing directly to the community's overall economic prosperity. The management of household finances and resource allocation was also largely their domain, demanding considerable skill and foresight. Furthermore, the meticulous record-keeping often found in Puritan households often fell under the purview of women, offering them a degree of control and knowledge rarely acknowledged in historical accounts.

Religious Life and Piety: Agents of Faith

Contrary to the image of passive piety, Puritan women actively participated in religious life. While they couldn't preach or hold official leadership positions within the church, they played a vital role in maintaining the spiritual health of their communities. Women frequently participated in religious meetings, prayer groups, and charitable works. Their piety was often deeply personal and intensely expressed through devotional writings, diaries, and family instruction. Their religious devotion influenced their entire lives, permeating their roles as mothers, wives, and community members. The role of religious instruction within the family, primarily undertaken by women, demonstrates their significant influence in shaping the religious beliefs and practices of the next generation.

Education and Literacy: A Hidden Strength

While formal education for women was limited, many Puritan women possessed a surprising level of literacy and intellectual engagement. This was partly due to the emphasis on religious instruction and the need to read the Bible and other religious texts. This literacy empowered them to engage with religious discourse, record their experiences, and maintain correspondence. Furthermore, the practice of maintaining detailed household accounts and engaging in correspondence required a practical level of literacy. While access to formal schooling was uneven, the literacy rates among Puritan women were higher than in many contemporary European societies, granting them opportunities for personal and intellectual growth often overlooked.

Marriage and Family: Power Dynamics and Agency

Marriage in Puritan society was a complex institution that both constrained and empowered women. While women were expected to be subservient to their husbands, the reality was often more nuanced. Women exercised agency within the confines of their marital roles through their management of household affairs, their influence on their children’s upbringing, and their participation in the broader community. Their roles as wives and mothers provided avenues for exerting influence and shaping the lives of their families. The intimate nature of family life offered space for subtle expressions of power and influence that are often difficult to document but were undoubtedly present.

Challenges and Constraints: Navigating a Patriarchal Society

It's crucial to acknowledge the limitations imposed on Puritan women by the patriarchal structure of their society. They faced legal constraints, limited property rights, and restricted access to education and public life. Their social standing was largely dependent on their marital status and their husband's social position. However, even within these constraints, women found ways to exert agency and navigate the challenges of their lives. Their resilience, their contributions to the family and community, and their capacity for personal growth should not be underestimated.

The Legacy of Puritan Women: Shaping American Society

The experiences and contributions of Puritan women were instrumental in shaping the social, religious, and cultural fabric of early America. Their emphasis on piety, hard work, and family values laid the foundation for many of the societal norms that would later characterize American culture. Their resilience in the face of adversity demonstrated a strength and spirit that continues to resonate today. While often overlooked in historical narratives, their stories are vital to a complete understanding of the formation of American society and the evolution of women's roles in the country.

Ebook Outline: Puritan Women: Beyond the Myths

Author: Eleanor Vance

Introduction: Setting the stage – dispelling common misconceptions about Puritan women and outlining the book’s scope.
Chapter 1: The Domestic Economy: Detailing the economic contributions of women within the household – spinning, weaving, food preservation, etc.
Chapter 2: Religious Life and Piety: Examining women's roles in religious meetings, prayer groups, and the transmission of faith within the family.
Chapter 3: Education and Literacy: Exploring the surprising levels of literacy amongst Puritan women and its implications.
Chapter 4: Marriage and Family: Analyzing the complexities of marriage within Puritan society, considering both constraints and agency.
Chapter 5: Challenges and Constraints: Addressing the legal and social limitations faced by Puritan women.
Chapter 6: Notable Examples: Profiling individual women who exemplify the diverse experiences and contributions of Puritan women.
Chapter 7: Legacy and Influence: Assessing the lasting impact of Puritan women on American society and culture.
Conclusion: Summarizing key findings and emphasizing the importance of reconsidering the historical narratives surrounding Puritan women.

Chapter Explanations:

Each chapter will delve deeply into the specified topic, incorporating primary source material such as diaries, letters, and legal documents, alongside secondary scholarly sources to offer a balanced and nuanced perspective. For example, Chapter 1 will analyze inventory records and household accounts to showcase the economic value of women's domestic labor. Chapter 2 will examine religious texts and meeting records to demonstrate the extent of women’s participation in religious life. Chapter 4 will use marital contracts and legal records to illuminate the legal rights and responsibilities of women within marriage. Each chapter will analyze historical context, societal pressures, and the individual agency of women within those limitations. The book will be written in a clear and engaging style, accessible to a broad audience while maintaining scholarly rigor.

FAQs

1. Were Puritan women completely powerless? No, while constrained by societal norms, they held significant influence within the household and community through economic management, religious instruction, and family influence.

2. What role did literacy play in the lives of Puritan women? Literacy, though not universally accessible, empowered women in various ways – from religious study to record-keeping and communication.

3. How did Puritan women contribute to the economy? Their domestic skills – spinning, weaving, food preservation – were crucial to the family's and community's economic well-being.

4. What were the legal limitations faced by Puritan women? They had limited property rights, were generally subordinate to their husbands in legal matters, and lacked access to many public roles.

5. Did Puritan women have any agency within their roles? Yes, they exercised agency within the constraints of their society, influencing household management, family life, and even their spiritual communities.

6. How did the role of Puritan women influence later generations? Their emphasis on piety, hard work, and family values helped shape American social and cultural norms.

7. Were there any prominent female figures in Puritan society? While official leadership was limited, numerous women left their mark through their writings, their influence within their communities, and their overall resilience.

8. What were the common challenges faced by Puritan women? Challenges included childbirth mortality, limited healthcare, social expectations of subservience, and restrictions on property ownership and public participation.

9. How does this book challenge traditional narratives about Puritan women? It challenges the stereotypical image of the silent, submissive Puritan woman by revealing their diverse experiences, resilience, and significant contributions to society.

1. Puritan Women and Childbirth: Examining the high mortality rates and the impact on women's lives.
2. Puritan Women's Diaries and Personal Writings: Analyzing the insights into women's personal experiences and beliefs.
3. The Role of Women in Puritan Religious Practices: Focusing specifically on women's participation in meetings, prayer groups, and charitable work.
4. Education and Literacy among 17th-Century Women: A broader look at literacy rates and access to education for women in the colonial period.
5. Women and Property Ownership in Colonial New England: Exploring legal constraints and the limited property rights of women.
6. The Puritan Family Structure: A deeper analysis of family dynamics and the roles of men and women within the family unit.
7. Notable Women of Early New England: Highlighting individual biographies of exceptional women from the Puritan era.
8. Witchcraft Accusations and Puritan Women: Analyzing the role of gender in the Salem Witch Trials and other witchcraft accusations.
9. The Legacy of Puritan Women's Piety: Exploring the influence of Puritan religious values on subsequent generations and American culture.

puritan women s role in society: Love Thy Body Nancy R. Pearcey, 2018-01-02 Why the call to Love Thy Body? To counter a pervasive hostility toward the body and biology that drives today's headline stories: Transgenderism: Activists detach gender from biology. Kids down to kindergarten are being taught their bodies are irrelevant. Is this affirming--or does it demean the body? Homosexuality: Advocates disconnect sexuality from biological identity. Is this liberating--or does it denigrate biology? Abortion: Supporters deny the fetus is a person, though it is biologically human. Does this mean equality for women--or does it threaten the intrinsic value of all humans? Euthanasia: Those who lack certain cognitive abilities are said to be no longer persons. Is this compassionate--or does it ultimately put everyone at risk? In Love Thy Body, bestselling author Nancy Pearcey goes beyond politically correct slogans with a riveting exposé of the dehumanizing worldview that shapes current watershed moral issues. Pearcey then turns the tables on media boilerplate that misportrays Christianity as harsh or hateful. A former agnostic, she makes a surprising and persuasive case that Christianity is holistic, sustaining the dignity of the body and biology. Throughout she entrances readers with compassionate stories of people wrestling with hard questions in their own lives--their pain, their struggles, their triumphs. Liberal secularist ideology rests on a mistake and Nancy Pearcey in her terrific new book puts her finger right on it. In embracing abortion, euthanasia, homosexual conduct and relationships, transgenderism, and the like, liberal secularism . . . is philosophically as well as theologically untenable.--Robert P. George, Princeton University Wonderful guide.--Sam Allberry, author, Is God Anti-Gay? A must-read.--Rosaria Butterfield, former professor, Syracuse University; author, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert An astute but accessible analysis of the intellectual roots of the most important moral ills facing us today: abortion, euthanasia, and redefining the family.--Richard Weikart, California State University, Stanislaus Highly readable, insightful, and informative.--Mary Poplin, Claremont Graduate University; author, Is Reality Secular? Unmasks the far-reaching practical consequences of mind-body dualism better than anyone I have ever seen.--Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president, The Ruth Institute Love Thy Body richly enhances the treasure box that is Pearcey's collective work.--Glenn T. Stanton, Focus on the Family Essential reading . . . Love Thy Body brings clarity and understanding to the multitude of complex and confusing views in discussions about love and sexuality.--Becky Norton Dunlop, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation Pearcey gets straight to the issue of our day: What makes humans valuable in the first place? You must get this book. Don't just read it. Master it.--Scott Klusendorf, president, Life Training Institute
puritan women s role in society: Damned Women Elizabeth Reis, 1999-01-18 In her analysis of the cultural construction of gender in early America, Elizabeth Reis explores the intersection of Puritan theology, Puritan evaluations of womanhood, and the Salem witchcraft episodes. She finds in those intersections the basis for understanding why women were accused of witchcraft more often than men, why they confessed more often, and why they frequently accused other women of being witches. In negotiating their beliefs about the devil's powers, both women and men embedded womanhood in the discourse of depravity.Puritan ministers insisted that women and men were equal in the sight of God, with both sexes equally capable of cleaving to Christ or to the devil. Nevertheless, Reis explains, womanhood and evil were inextricably linked in the minds and hearts of seventeenth-century New England Puritans. Women and men feared hell equally but Puritan culture encouraged women to believe it was their vile natures that would take them there rather than the particular sins they might have committed.Following the Salem witchcraft trials, Reis argues, Puritans' understanding of sin and the devil changed. Ministers and laity conceived of a Satan who tempted sinners and presided physically over hell, rather than one who possessed souls in the living world. Women and men became increasingly confident of their redemption, although women more than men continued to imagine themselves as essentially corrupt, even after the Great Awakening.
puritan women s role in society: Ornaments for the daughters of Zion Cotton Mather, 1692
puritan women s role in society: The Religious History of American Women Catherine A. Brekus, 2007 More than a generation after the rise of women's history alongside the feminist movement, it is still difficult, observes Catherine Brekus, to locate women in histories of American religion. In this collection of 12 essays, contributors explore how considering the religious history of American women can transform our dominant historical narratives. Covering a variety of topics--including Mormonism, the women's rights movement, Judaism, witchcraft trials, the civil rights movement, Catholicism, everyday religious life, Puritanism, African American women's activism, and the Enlightenment--the volume enhances our understanding of both religious history and women's history. Taken together, these essays sound the call for a new, more inclusive history.
puritan women s role in society: The Puritan Family Edmund Sears Morgan, 1966 Examines family life of the Puritans in seventeenth-century New England and how it was so closely connected to the religious life of the colonists.
puritan women s role in society: Good Wives Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 2010-12-29 This enthralling work of scholarship strips away abstractions to reveal the hidden--and not always stoic--face of the goodwives of colonial America. In these pages we encounter the awesome burdens--and the considerable power--of a New England housewife's domestic life and witness her occasional forays into the world of men. We see her borrowing from her neighbors, loving her husband, raising--and, all too often, mourning--her children, and even attaining fame as a heroine of frontier conflicts or notoriety as a murderess. Painstakingly researched, lively with scandal and homely detail, Good Wives is history at its best.
puritan women s role in society: American Women's History Susan Ware, 2015 What does American history look like with women at the center of the story? From Pocahantas to military women serving in the Iraqi war, this Very Short Introduction chronicles the contributions that women have made to the American experience from a multicultural perspective that emphasizes how gender shapes women's--and men's--lives.
puritan women s role in society: The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England Carol F. Karlsen, 1998-04-17 A pioneer work in…the sexual structuring of society. This is not just another book about witchcraft. —Edmund S. Morgan, Yale University Confessing to familiarity with the devils, Mary Johnson, a servant, was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow, Ann Hibbens was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbors. The case of Ann Cole, who was taken with very strange Fits, fueled an outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the notorious events at Salem. More than three hundred years later, the question Why? still haunts us. Why were these and other women likely witches—vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession? Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society.
puritan women s role in society: Women Before the Bar Cornelia Hughes Dayton, 2012-12-01 Women before the Bar is the first study to investigate changing patterns of women's participation in early American courts across a broad range of legal actions--including proceedings related to debt, divorce, illicit sex, rape, and slander. Weaving the stories of individual women together with systematic analysis of gendered litigation patterns, Cornelia Dayton argues that women's relation to the courtroom scene in early New England shifted from one of integration in the mid-seventeenth century to one of marginality by the eve of the Revolution. Using the court records of New Haven, which originally had the most Puritan-dominated legal regime of all the colonies, Dayton argues that Puritanism's insistence on godly behavior and communal modes of disputing initially created unusual opportunities for women's voices to be heard within the legal system. But women's presence in the courts declined significantly over time as Puritan beliefs lost their status as the organizing principles of society, as legal practice began to adhere more closely to English patriarchal models, as the economy became commercialized, and as middle-class families developed an ethic of privacy. By demonstrating that the early eighteenth century was a crucial locus of change in law, economy, and gender ideology, Dayton's findings argue for a reconceptualization of women's status in colonial New England and for a new periodization of women's history.
puritan women s role in society: Women and Religion in Early America, 1600-1850 Marilyn J. Westerkamp, 1999 In this contribution to the study of women and religon, Westerkamp analyzes how the Holy Spirit empowered women inPurtanism and evangelicalism. she argues that these women, socially and politically subordinate according to custom and law, expreinced the Holy Spirit during their lives and discoved their own charismatic authority. Focusing on prominent women, like A. Hutchinson, J. Lee, and N. Towle, Westerkamp explores the interactions between gendre and religion in Purtanism, the First Great Awakening, Methodism, and voluntary associations.
puritan women s role in society: Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World Margaret Manchester, 2019-05-31 Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World examines the dynamics of marriage, family and community life during the Great Migration through the microhistorical study of one puritan family in 1638 Rhode Island. Through studying the Verin family, a group of English non-conformists who took part in the Great Migration, this book examines differing approaches within puritanism towards critical issues of the age, including liberty of conscience, marriage, family, female agency, domestic violence, and the role of civil government in responding to these developments. Like other nonconformists who challenged the established Church of England, the Verins faced important personal dilemmas brought on by the dictates of their conscience even after emigrating. A violent marital dispute between Jane and her husband Joshua divided the Providence community and resulted, for the first time in the English-speaking colonies, in a woman’s right to a liberty of conscience independent of her husband being upheld. Through biographical sketches of the founders of Providence and engaging with puritan ministerial and prescriptive literature and female-authored petitions and pamphlets, this book illustrates how women saw their place in the world and considers the exercise of female agency in the early modern era. Connecting migration studies, family and community studies, religious studies, and political philosophy, Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World will be of great interest to scholars of the English Atlantic World, American religious history, gender and violence, the history of New England, and the history of family.
puritan women s role in society: The Quakers in America Thomas D. Hamm, 2003 The Quakers in America is a multifaceted history of the Religious Society of Friends and a fascinating study of its culture and controversies today. Lively vignettes of Conservative, Evangelical, Friends General Conference, and Friends United meetings illuminate basic Quaker theology and reflect the group's diversity while also highlighting the fundamental unity within the religion. Quaker culture encompasses a rich tradition of practice even as believers continue to debate whether Quakerism is necessarily Christian, where religious authority should reside, how one transmits faith to children, and how gender and sexuality shape religious belief and behavior. Praised for its rich insight and wide-ranging perspective, The Quakers in America is a penetrating account of an influential, vibrant, and often misunderstood religious sect. Known best for their long-standing commitment to social activism, pacifism, fair treatment for Native Americans, and equality for women, the Quakers have influenced American thought and society far out of proportion to their relatively small numbers. Whether in the foreign policy arena (the American Friends Service Committee), in education (the Friends schools), or in the arts (prominent Quakers profiled in this book include James Turrell, Bonnie Raitt, and James Michener), Quakers have left a lasting imprint on American life. This multifaceted book is a concise history of the Religious Society of Friends; an introduction to its beliefs and practices; and a vivid picture of the culture and controversies of the Friends today. The book opens with lively vignettes of Conservative, Evangelical, Friends General Conference, and Friends United meetings that illuminate basic Quaker concepts and theology and reflect the group's diversity in the wake of the sectarian splintering of the nineteenth century. Yet the book also examines commonalities among American Friends that demonstrate a fundamental unity within the religion: their commitments to worship, the ministry of all believers, decision making based on seeking spiritual consensus rather than voting, a simple lifestyle, and education. Thomas Hamm shows that Quaker culture encompasses a rich tradition of practice even as believers continue to debate a number of central questions: Is Quakerism necessarily Christian? Where should religious authority reside? Is the self sacred? How does one transmit faith to children? How do gender and sexuality shape religious belief and behavior? Hamm's analysis of these debates reveals a vital religion that prizes both unity and diversity.
puritan women s role in society: Women's Roles in Seventeenth-Century America Merril D. Smith, 2008-06-30 In Colonial America, the lives of white immigrant, black slave, and American Indian women intersected. Economic, religious, social, and political forces all combined to induce and promote European colonization and the growth of slavery and the slave trade during this period. This volume provides the essential overview of American women's lives in the seventeenth century, as the dominant European settlers established their patriarchy. Women were essential to the existence of a new patriarchal society, most importantly because they were necessary for its reproduction. In addition to their roles as wives and mothers, Colonial women took care of the house and household by cooking, preserving food, sewing, spinning, tending gardens, taking care of sick or injured members of the household, and many other tasks. Students and general readers will learn about women's roles in the family, women and the law, women and immigration, women's work, women and religion, women and war, and women and education. literature, and recreation. The narrative chapters in this volume focus on women, particularly white women, within the eastern region of the current United States, the site of the first colonies. Chapter 1 discusses women's roles within the family and household and how women's experiences in the various colonies differed. Chapter 2 considers women and the law and roles in courts and as victims of crime. Chapter 3 looks at women and immigration—those who came with families or as servants or slaves. Women's work is the subject of Chapter 4. The focus is work within the home, preparing food, sewing, taking care of children, and making household goods, or as businesswomen or midwives. Women and religion are discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 examines women's role in war. Women's education is one focus of Chapter 7. Few Colonial women could read but most women did receive an education in the arts of housewifery. Chapter 7 also looks at women's contributions to literature and their leisure time. Few women were free to pursue literary endeavors, but many expressed their creativity through handiwork. A chronology, selected bibliography, and historical illustrations accompany the text.
puritan women s role in society: Puritans Behaving Badly Monica D. Fitzgerald, 2022-03-10 Tracing the first three generations in Puritan New England, this book explores changes in language, gender expectations, and religious identities for men and women. The book argues that laypeople shaped gender conventions by challenging the ideas of ministers and rectifying more traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity. Although Puritan's emphasis on spiritual equality had the opportunity to radically alter gender roles, in daily practice laymen censured men and women differently - punishing men for public behavior that threatened the peace of their communities, and women for private sins that allegedly revealed their spiritual corruption. In order to retain their public masculine identity, men altered the original mission of Puritanism, infusing gender into the construction of religious ideas about public service, the creation of the individual, and the gendering of separate spheres. With these practices, Puritans transformed their 'errand into the wilderness' and the normative Puritan became female.
puritan women s role in society: Under Household Government M. Michelle Jarrett Morris, 2013-01-07 Seventeenth-century New Englanders were not as busy policing their neighbors’ behavior as Nathaniel Hawthorne or many historians of early America would have us believe. Keeping their own households in line occupied too much of their time. Under Household Government reveals the extent to which family members took on the role of watchdog in matters of sexual indiscretion. In a society where one’s sister’s husband’s brother’s wife was referred to as “sister,” kinship networks could be immense. When out-of-wedlock pregnancies, paternity suits, and infidelity resulted in legal cases, courtrooms became battlegrounds for warring clans. Families flooded the courts with testimony, sometimes resorting to slander and jury-tampering to defend their kin. Even slaves merited defense as household members—and as valuable property. Servants, on the other hand, could expect to be cast out and left to fend for themselves. As she elaborates the ways family policing undermined the administration of justice, M. Michelle Jarrett Morris shows how ordinary colonists understood sexual, marital, and familial relationships. Long-buried tales are resurrected here, such as that of Thomas Wilkinson’s (unsuccessful) attempt to exchange cheese for sex with Mary Toothaker, and the discovery of a headless baby along the shore of Boston’s Mill Pond. The Puritans that we meet in Morris’s account are not the cardboard caricatures of myth, but are rendered with both skill and sensitivity. Their stories of love, sex, and betrayal allow us to understand anew the depth and complexity of family life in early New England.
puritan women s role in society: Female Piety and the Invention of American Puritanism Bryce Traister, 2016 Female Piety and the Invention of American Puritanism reconsiders the standard critical view that women's religious experiences were either silent consent or hostile response to mainstream Puritan institutions. In this groundbreaking new approach to American Puritanism, Bryce Traister asks how gendered understandings of authentic religious experience contributed to the development of seventeenth-century religious culture and to the post-religious historiography of Puritanism in secular modernity. He argues that women were neither marginal nor hostile to the theological and cultural ambitions of seventeenth-century New England religious culture and, indeed, that radicalized female piety was in certain key respects the driving force of New England Puritan culture. Uncovering the feminine interiority of New England Protestantism, Female Piety and the Invention of American Puritanism positions itself against prevalent historical arguments about the rise of secularism in the modern West. Traister demonstrates that female spirituality became a principal vehicle through which Puritan identity became both absorbed within and foundational for pre-national secular culture. Engaging broadly with debates about religion and secularization, national origins and transnational unsettlements, and gender and cultural authority, this is a foundational reconsideration both of American Puritanism itself and of American Puritanism as it has been understood in relation to secular modernity.
puritan women s role in society: Memorable Women of the Puritan Times James Anderson, 2001-05-01
puritan women s role in society: The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women, 1558-1680 J. Harris, E. Scott-Baumann, 2010-11-24 This collection of essays by leading scholars in the field reveals the major contribution of puritan women to the intellectual culture of the early modern period. It demonstrates that women's roles within puritan and broader communities encompassed translating and disseminating key texts, producing an impressive body of original writing.
puritan women s role in society: Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction Francis J. Bremer, 2009-07-24 Written by a leading expert on the Puritans, this brief, informative volume offers a wealth of background on this key religious movement. This book traces the shaping, triumph, and decline of the Puritan world, while also examining the role of religion in the shaping of American society and the role of the Puritan legacy in American history. Francis J. Bremer discusses the rise of Puritanism in the English Reformation, the struggle of the reformers to purge what they viewed as the corruptions of Roman Catholicism from the Elizabethan church, and the struggle with the Stuart monarchs that led to a brief Puritan triumph under Oliver Cromwell. It also examines the effort of Puritans who left England to establish a godly kingdom in America. Bremer examines puritan theology, views on family and community, their beliefs about the proper relationship between religion and public life, the limits of toleration, the balance between individual rights and one's obligation to others, and the extent to which public character should be shaped by private religious belief. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
puritan women s role in society: Women's Roles in Eighteenth-Century America Merril D. Smith, 2010-02-26 This book offers a look at how the lives of women changed in the era when the United States emerged. Spanning the broad spectrum of Colonial-era life, Women's Roles in Eighteenth-Century America is a revealing exploration of how 18-century American women of various races, classes, and religions were affected by conditions of the times—war, slavery, religious awakenings, political change, perceptions about gender—as well as how they influenced the world around them. Women's Roles in Eighteenth-Century America covers the area of North America that became the United States and follows the transformation of the British colonies into a new nation. The book is organized thematically to examine marriage and the family, the law, work, travel, war, religion, and education and the arts. Each chapter combines current research and primary sources to offer authoritative portraits of real lives of the everyday women during this pivotal early era in our history.
puritan women s role in society: Female Piety in Puritan New England Amanda Porterfield, 1992 This treatise documents the claim that, for Puritan men and women alike, the ideals of selfhood were conveyed by female images. It argues that these images taught self-control, shaped pious ideals and established the standards against which the moral character of real women was measured.
puritan women s role in society: The Social Sex Marilyn Yalom, Theresa Donovan Brown, 2015-09-22 “Fascinating . . . The Social Sex is a paean to companionship. Share it with a bosom friend.” —NPR From historian and acclaimed feminist author of How the French Invented Love and A History of the Wife comes this rich, multifaceted history of the evolution of female friendship In today’s culture, the bonds of female friendship are taken as a given. But only a few centuries ago, the idea of female friendship was completely unacknowledged, even pooh-poohed. Only men, the reasoning went, had the emotional and intellectual depth to develop and sustain these meaningful relationships. Surveying history, literature, philosophy, religion, and pop culture, acclaimed author and historian Marilyn Yalom and co-author Theresa Donovan Brown demonstrate how women were able to co-opt the public face of friendship throughout the years. Chronicling shifting attitudes toward friendship—both female and male—from the Bible and the Romans to the Enlightenment to the women’s rights movements of the ‘60s up to Sex and the City and Bridesmaids, they reveal how the concept of female friendship has been inextricably linked to the larger social and cultural movements that have defined human history. Armed with Yalom and Brown as our guides, we delve into the fascinating historical episodes and trends that illuminate the story of friendship between women: the literary salon as the original book club, the emergence of female professions and the working girl, the phenomenon of gossip, the advent of women’s sports, and more. Lively, informative, and richly detailed, The Social Sex is a revelatory cultural history.
puritan women s role in society: Women in Early America Thomas A Foster, Carol Berkin, Jennifer L Morgan, 2015-03-20 Tells the fascinating stories of the myriad women who shaped the early modern North American world from the colonial era through the first years of the Republic Women in Early America, edited by Thomas A. Foster, goes beyond the familiar stories of Pocahontas or Abigail Adams, recovering the lives and experiences of lesser-known women—both ordinary and elite, enslaved and free, Indigenous and immigrant—who lived and worked in not only British mainland America, but also New Spain, New France, New Netherlands, and the West Indies. In these essays we learn about the conditions that women faced during the Salem witchcraft panic and the Spanish Inquisition in New Mexico; as indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland; caught up between warring British and Native Americans; as traders in New Netherlands and Detroit; as slave owners in Jamaica; as Loyalist women during the American Revolution; enslaved in the President’s house; and as students and educators inspired by the air of equality in the young nation. Foster showcases the latest research of junior and senior historians, drawing from recent scholarship informed by women’s and gender history—feminist theory, gender theory, new cultural history, social history, and literary criticism. Collectively, these essays address the need for scholarship on women’s lives and experiences. Women in Early America heeds the call of feminist scholars to not merely reproduce male-centered narratives, “add women, and stir,” but to rethink master narratives themselves so that we may better understand how women and men created and developed our historical past.
puritan women s role in society: The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood, 2011-09-06 An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. In this multi-award-winning, bestselling novel, Margaret Atwood has created a stunning Orwellian vision of the near future. This is the story of Offred, one of the unfortunate “Handmaids” under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships, Offred’s persistent memories of life in the “time before” and her will to survive are acts of rebellion. Provocative, startling, prophetic, and with Margaret Atwood’s devastating irony, wit, and acute perceptive powers in full force, The Handmaid’s Tale is at once a mordant satire and a dire warning.
puritan women s role in society: The Puritan Tradition in America, 1620-1730 Alden T. Vaughan, 1972 A classic documentary collection on New England's Puritan roots is once again available, with new material.
puritan women s role in society: American Jezebel Eve LaPlante, 2005-03-01 The Dramatic Story of America's Founding Mother
puritan women s role in society: Beyond Authority and Submission Rachel Green Miller, 2019
puritan women s role in society: Society and Puritanism in Pre-revolutionary England Christopher Hill, 2018-09-25 How Puritanism made modern Britain In order to understand the English Revolution and Civil War, it is essential to get a grasp on the nature of Puritanism. In this classic work of social history, Christopher Hill reveals Puritanism as a living faith, one responding to social as well as religious needs. It was a set of beliefs that answered the hopes and fears of yeomen and gentlemen, as well as merchants and artisans, in a time of tribulation and extraordinary turbulence. Over this period, Puritanism was interwoven into daily life. Here Hill looks at how rituals and practices such as oath-taking, the Sabbath, bawdy courts, and poor relief offered a way to bring order to social upheaval. He even offers an explanation for the emergence of the seemingly paradoxical figure of the age—the Puritan revolutionary.
puritan women s role in society: Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender Vern L. Bullough, Bonnie Bullough, 1993 In any society, the perception of femininity and masculinity is not necessarily dependent on female or male genitalia. Cross dressing, gender impersonation, and long-term masquerades of the opposite sex are commonplace throughout history. In contemporary American culture, the behavior occurs most often among male heterosexuals and homosexuals, sometimes for erotic pleasure, sometimes not. In the past, however, cross dressing was for the most part practiced more often by women than men. Although males often burlesqued women and gave comic impersonations of them, they rarely attempted a change of public gender until the twentieth century. This phenomenon, according to Vern L. Bullough and Bonnie Bullough, has implications for any understanding of the changing relationships between the sexes in the twentieth century. In most Western societies, being a man and demonstrating masculinity is more highly prized than being a woman and displaying femininity. Some non-Western societies, however, are more tolerant and even encourage men to behave like women and women to act like men. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender not only surveys cross dressing and gender impersonation throughout history and in a variety of cultures but also examines the medical, biological, psychological, and sociological findings that have been presented in the modern scientific literature. This volume offers the results of the authors' research into contemporary gender issues and the search for explanations. After examining the various current theories regarding cross dressing and gender impersonation, the Bulloughs offer their own theory. This book, widely deemed a classic in its field, is the culmination of thirty years of research by the Bulloughs into gender impersonation and cross dressing. Their groundbreaking findings will be of interest to anyone involved in the debate over nature versus nurture, and have implications not only for scholars in the various social sciences and sex and gender studies, but for educators, nurses, physicians, feminists, gays, lesbians, and general readers. This work will be of more personal interest to anyone who identifies as a transvestite or transsexual or who has been classified by medical and psychiatric professionals as suffering from gender dysphoria. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender covers a wide range of cultures and periods. As the first comprehensive attempt to examine the phenomenon of cross dressing, it will be of interest to students and scholars of social history, sociology, nursing, and women's studies.
puritan women s role in society: You Have Stept Out of Your Place Susan Hill Lindley, 1996-01-01 Women throughout American history have repeatedly been accused of stepping out of their places as many have fought for more rewarding roles in the church and society. In this book, Susan Hill Lindley demonstrates that just as religion in the traditional sense has influenced the lives of American women through its institutions, values, and sanctions, so women themselves have had significant effect on the shape of American religion through the years.
puritan women s role in society: In Public Houses David W. Conroy, 2018-08-25 In this study of the role of taverns in the development of Massachusetts society, David Conroy brings into focus a vital and controversial but little-understood facet of public life during the colonial era. Concentrating on the Boston area, he reveals a popular culture at odds with Puritan social ideals, one that contributed to the transformation of Massachusetts into a republican society. Public houses were an integral part of colonial community life and hosted a variety of official functions, including meetings of the courts. They also filled a special economic niche for women and the poor, many of whom turned to tavern-keeping to earn a living. But taverns were also the subject of much critical commentary by the clergy and increasingly restrictive regulations. Conroy argues that these regulations were not only aimed at curbing the spiritual corruption associated with public houses but also at restricting the popular culture that had begun to undermine the colony's social and political hierarchy. Specifically, Conroy illuminates the role played by public houses as a forum for the development of a vocal republican citizenry, and he highlights the connections between the vibrant oral culture of taverns and the expanding print culture of newspapers and political pamphlets in the eighteenth century.
puritan women s role in society: Gender Roles Linda L. Lindsey, 2015-10-14 Offers a sociological perspective of gender that can be applied to our lives. Focusing on the most recent research and theory–both in the U.S. and globally–Gender Roles, 6e provides an in-depth, survey and analysis of modern gender roles and issues from a sociological perspective. The text integrates insights and research from other disciplines such as biology, psychology, anthropology, and history to help build more robust theories of gender roles.
puritan women s role in society: Gender Roles in American Life [2 volumes] Constance L. Shehan, 2018-04-04 This two-volume set examines how the evolution of gender roles in the United States has changed family dynamics, business practices, concepts of womanhood and manhood, and affected debates about equality, political and military service, and childrearing roles and practices. In the centuries that have passed since colonial America was first established, gender roles in American society have undergone massive transformations, with impacts that have been felt in every aspect of our culture. This evolution in gender roles has affected society in practically every conceivable manner, from family dynamics, the economy, and entertainment to business practices, how politics and military training are conducted, and childrearing roles and practices. In some places, it has sparked a tremendous backlash among Americans who see traditional gender roles as one of the country's foundational pillars. This set surveys all of these issues, making use of a wide assortment of primary documents to help readers understand the individuals, events, and ideas responsible for these changes in how American men, boys, women, and girls live, work, play, and relate to one another. These documents include speeches, testimony, and manifestos issued by prominent activists and commentators; recorded remarks of U.S. presidents and members of Congress; newspaper editorials, poems, short stories, and personal letters written by generations of American men and women; and passages from key Supreme Court decisions and legislation that have influenced gender roles—or were the result of evolving ideas regarding gender. Readers will also be able to consider first-hand the experiences of women and men who have been on the front lines of these changes, from stay-at-home dads to women in the military; government reports; and memoirs, essays, and other commentaries featuring different ideological perspectives on where men and women stand in American society in the 21st century.
puritan women s role in society: The Position of Women in the New World's Puritan Society in the Seventeenth Century Stephanie MacHate, 2011-03-14 Essay from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, Dresden Technical University, 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In order to examine women's status and life in a Puritan society in the New World, we first have to know why people left their native country. Marilyn J. Westerkamp tries to give some reasons in her book Women and Religion in Early America: In the early sixteenth century the Reformation arrived in England (3) and in the following decades a Puritan culture developed. A website1 tells us that in its core a description of man's direct relationship to God could be found and that thus no one needed a priest to contact God. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Puritan movement was attacked by Anglican bishops so that a few tried to flee. When Charles І became monarch, a tendency of being less tolerant towards Puritan clerics grew; as a result of this many influential Puritans were arrested. Due to the fact that under the reign of this king numerous ceremonies were formalized and made more complex, the Puritans felt that religious ceremonies became artificial and thus their dissatisfaction grew. From 1628 on, they started to think of emigration to escape the monarch's control (Westerkamp 13). English Puritans founded in April 1630 a colony in the New World, called New England. Westerkamp calls this community, which was built in the wilderness, a holy experiment. As New England was created with the help of England, but without an interference of the monarch (Westerkamp 14), it was possible to develop the colony independently from the oversea's monarchy. In this experiment as many women as men were involved and due to the direct contact between God and the individual, religious power could be given to anybody (Westerkamp 11). Therefore the status and the role of a woman might differ to that in England.
puritan women s role in society: The Logic of Women on Trial Janice E. Schuetz, 1994 Janice Schuetz investigates the felony trials of nine American women from colonial Salem to the present: Rebecca Nurse, tried for witchcraft in 1692; Mary E. Surratt, tried in 1865 for assisting John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; Lizzie Andrew Borden, tried in 1892 for the ax murder of her father and stepmother; Margaret Sanger, tried in 1915, 1917, and 1929 for her actions in support of birth control; Ethel Rosenberg, tried in 1951 for aiding the disclosure of secrets of the atom bomb to the Soviets; Yvonne Wanrow, tried in 1974 for killing a man who molested her neighbor's daughter; Patricia Campbell Hearst, tried in 1975 for bank robbery as a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army; Jean Harris, tried in 1982 for killing Herman Tarnower, the Diet Doctor; and Darci Kayleen Pierce, tried in 1988 for kidnapping and brutally murdering a pregnant woman, then removing the baby from the woman's womb. In her analysis, Schuetz is careful to define these trials as popular trials. Characteristically, popular trials involve persons, issues, or crimes of social interest that attract extensive public interest and involvement. Such trials make a contribution to the ongoing historical dialogue about the meaning of justice and the legal system, while reflecting the values of the time and place in which they occur. Schuetz examines the kinds of communication that transpired and the importance of gender in the trials by applying a different current rhetorical theory to each trial text. In every chapter, she explains her chosen interpretive theory, compares that framework with the discourse of the trial, and makes judgments about the meaning of the trial texts based on the interpretive theory.
puritan women s role in society: Sexual Revolution in Early America Richard Godbeer, 2004-02-18 An Alternate Selection of the History Book Club In 1695, John Miller, a clergyman traveling through New York, found it appalling that so many couples lived together without ever being married and that no one viewed ante-nuptial fornication as anything scandalous or sinful. Charles Woodmason, an Anglican minister in South Carolina in 1766, described the region as a stage of debauchery in which polygamy was very common, concubinage general, and bastardy no disrepute. These depictions of colonial North America's sexual culture sharply contradict the stereotype of Puritanical abstinence that persists in the popular imagination. In Sexual Revolution in Early America, Richard Godbeer boldly overturns conventional wisdom about the sexual values and customs of colonial Americans. His eye-opening historical account spans two centuries and most of British North America, from New England to the Caribbean, exploring the social, political, and legal dynamics that shaped a diverse sexual culture. Drawing on exhaustive research into diaries, letters, and other private papers, as well as legal records and official documents, Godbeer's absorbing narrative uncovers a persistent struggle between the moral authorities and the widespread expression of popular customs and individual urges. Godbeer begins with a discussion of the complex attitude that the Puritans had toward sexuality. For example, although believing that sex could be morally corrupting, they also considered it to be such an essential element of a healthy marriage that they excommunicated those who denied conjugal fellowship to their spouses. He next examines the ways in which race and class affected the debate about sexual mores, from anxieties about Anglo-Indian sexual relations to the sense of sexual entitlement that planters held over their African slaves. He concludes by detailing the fundamental shift in sexual culture during the eighteenth century towards the acceptance of a more individualistic concept of sexual desire and fulfillment. Today's moral critics, in their attempts to convince Americans of the social and spiritual consequences of unregulated sexual behavior, often harken back to a more innocent age; as this groundbreaking work makes clear, America's sexual culture has always been rich, vibrant, and contentious.
puritan women s role in society: Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order Margo Todd, 2002-11-07 The author contends that the traditional views of puritan social thought have done a great injustice to the intellectual history of the 16th-century. Margo Todd reveals the puritans to be the heirs to a complex intellectual legacy.
puritan women s role in society: The Goodly Word Ellwood Johnson, 2005 Power, love, predestination. What did these words mean to the Puritans? Ellwood Johnson provides an invaluable reference guide to the vocabulary of Puritanism, and shows how the meanings of these words have changed. In illuminating essays, he further traces the influence of the theology of the heart on such thinkers as Isaac Newton, John Locke, Sampson Reed, R.W. Emerson, Alexis de Tocqueville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Adams. Now available in paperback, The Goodly Word is an indispensable reference for any student of American literature. This book is like a complicated set of keys that abundantly repays the effort by opening many locks. With his jangle of keys, Dr. Johnson opens doors to rooms that are everywhere new and mostly foreign to the modern and postmodern mind. He gives equal time to protagonists and antagonists, not to debate a central thesis, but to reflect and refract the ideas that lurk behind the patchwork quilt that is the intellectual history of America. Dr. Johnson finally pays the Puritans a great compliment. In their emphasis on 'individual inventiveness and personal productivity, ' he maintains, they may have saved American democracy from itself. -The Ivy Jungle Report I am unaware of another book that sets out to trace the larger patterns and influence of Puritan vocabulary on American intellectual development in such a thorough and provocative manner. -Dr. Stanley Tag, St. Olaf College Ellwood Johnson is Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
puritan women s role in society: The Handmaid's Tale Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Janis Goldie, 2019-06-06 The Handmaid's Tale: Teaching Dystopia, Feminism, and Resistance across Disciplines and Borders offers an interdisciplinary analysis of how Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, as well as its film and television adaptations, can be employed across different academic fields in high school, college and university classrooms. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and cultural contexts contribute to wide-ranging analytical strategies, ranging from religion and science to the role of journalism in democracy, while still embracing gender studies in a broader methodological and theoretical framework. The volume examines both the formal and stylistic ways in which Atwood's classic work and its adaptations can be brought to life in the classroom through different lenses and pedagogies.
puritan women s role in society: Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson Rowlandson, 2018-08-20 Classic Books Library presents this brand new edition of the “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” (1682). Mary Rowlandson (c. 1637-1711), nee Mary White, was born in Somerset, England. Her family moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the United States, and she settled in Lancaster, Massachusetts, marrying in 1656. It was here that Native Americans attacked during King Philip’s War, and Mary and her three children were taken hostage. This text is a profound first-hand account written by Mary detailing the experiences and conditions of her capture, and chronicling how she endured the 11 weeks in the wilderness under her Native American captors. It was published six years after her release, and explores the themes of mortal fragility, survival, faith and will, and the complexities of human nature. It is acknowledged as a seminal work of American historical literature.

Puritan Women S Role In Society