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Women During The Revolutionary War

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Before the Revolutionary War, women were considered inferior to men and was controlled by men. Women were housewives, which consisted of duties like cooking meals, teaching children, and cleaning. During this time marriage was an important part of people’s lifestyle. When women were married, they were considered as one with their husbands. Women had very little power in their relationship and the choices of their future. It was not until the Revolutionary War, when women began to become important and vital to their families. The Revolutionary War was between 1775 to 1783, which started in Lexington and Concord. During the Revolutionary War, many men had to leave their wives and children at home while they had to fight in the war. The Revolutionary …show more content…
The government was dominated with men and did not think about having women being a part of it. One man, John Locke, made and express in his writing, Two Treatises on Government, the importance of why having women involve in politics is good. His writing was an attack on Richard Filer’s, Patriarcha (Kerber, 189). Locke pointed out in the commandment, honor thy father and mother, and argued that men and women share familial powers and the power was limited by mutual responsibilities (Kerber, 189). What Locke accomplished by pointing this out was the integration of women into social theory (Kerber, 189). Locke in his argument had defined the political roles that women had in government. Another person, Montesquie argued that the best form of government for their society was a republic. He said, “In a republic, the condition of citizens is moderate, equal, mild and agreeable…. an empire over women cannot… be so well exerted.” (Kerber, 191). After this Condorcet, began standing up to women, telling them that they should refuse to pay taxes since they were not represented in the republican government (Kerber, 191). Most men of the Enlightenment disagreed that women should have relationships with the state and that their main roles were to be a housewife. It was up to the post-revolutionary ideology in America to justify the role for women in politics, since the Enlightenment could not figure it out. A phrase that they came up to combine women responsibilities and politics was, the Republican Mother. The duties of the Republican Mothers were raising sons and disciplining husbands to be virtuous citizens of the republic (Kerber, 203). Even though the duties of Republican Mothers did not exactly give them the opportunity to be a part of the government, it was still one step ahead to achieve gender

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