Blog #4

Chapter 3
1.The concept of “true womanhood” came from the belief that men and women are completely opposite and that there is no similarities that cross between the two. The major components of “true womanhood” were that the women usually were not able to do anything that had to do with business, politics or jobs needing harsh labor. All the women were to do during the early nineteenth century was to take care of the family in the home while the men worked at their businesses. This was only true for the white families because if hard labor was needed to be done in the fields, it was usually performed by the slaves, regardless of gender. This ideology was very important for white men in America during the nineteenth century because they had seen it as a new class structure in which they would build their families. This allowed the building of the middle class families. It became a lot easier to create a middle class family when the men were working while the women were taking care of the children. Middle Class women began separating themselves from the poor by preaching that it was because of the lack of values women had for their families that made them poor.

2.The significance of the Lowell mill girls in the history of U.S. women is that it was a step in introducing women into their own independence without the practice of “true womanhood.” The girls that were working in these mills were young in age, usually in their teenage years. Women were finally able to receive their own wages through their labor which led to more possibilities that would rise for women. These girls moved out of their family’s farms and moved into boarding houses in the cities, where they would work and receive a maximum wage of two dollars a week for long periods of work. These girls would usually spend this money on themselves and were finally able to show that they were indeed able to support themselves and be independent. Eventually, there were problems with the unfair wages that were being paid to these women. These unfair wages inevitably led to a strike. Since it was the first time a women’s voice was heard loudly throughout Lowell, the strikes allowed for women to take a political stand on more issues in the future.



Source Interpretation
Textbook document ( Chapter 3 pp. 169-173) – “The History of Prostitution”
1. Sanger’s view was that women were not the ones who should be blamed for prostitution. He believed that men were at fault because they showed no concern for the pain that these women were enduring throughout their lives. Sanger also proved that these women that chose the life of prostitution were brought into the way of life do to their will to survive in the world. He also found that the women living in urban cities had to go through “financial pressures(169).” These women were also influenced into prostitution because most women, morally, would not live a public life of non marital sex (170).

2. After interviewing and analyzing the two thousand women, Sanger found that the top cause for the women going into prostitution was that they were poor and needed enough money in order to survive. They did not want to starve in the streets and prostitution was their ticket out. One girl could not stand watching her crippled sister suffering everyday, which is why she had gone into prostitution. It had ultimately become her only source of making money and she was unable to get out of it since nobody would give her another job. The women that go into prostitution develop a lot of problems mentally. They begin to feel as if they are unjust and begin to feel a lot of guilt.

3. During the study, Sanger does not blame the women for their choice of prostitution but instead gives us reasons for their choice. All the women who were interviewed had a reasonable motive. Many of the prostitute’s motives were that they needed enough money in order avoid starvation. The values that individuals had were usually ignored because surviving was their first priority. After reading the article, it seems that people did not have many values during the time in which Sanger lived because the women that went into prostitution were provoked by the harsh society that they lived in. Therefore, the values that are not taught to individuals in society will lead to individuals deviant behavior.