Women in Early America

Early in American history, most women lived on farms and often ended up with extra responsibilities. A woman not only had to prepare meals, wash clothes, take care of children, plant gardens, milk cows, tend chickens, sew and mend, do other housekeeping chores, and perhaps keep bees, but she also helped her husband in the fields. With a shortage of labor, farmers often depended on their wives to help, especially at planting and harvest times.

In the first years, men outnumber women seven to one. According
to David freeman Hawke in

Everyday Life in Early America, one-third of the women who got married were pregnant at the time, twice the rate of those in England. Chances were only one in three that a husband and wife would spend ten years together. Disease, accidents, poor health, and childbirth often claimed a spouse.

Women's lives fell into a routine and varied little. There were clothes to make and wash, meals to cook, children to rear, and the housekeeping to do. These routines didn't change much. When winter came, and her husband could take things easier, her chores continued. As the country grew and matured, however, things would get better for some.

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