During the revolutionary era, American leaders decided to use economic boycotts in their struggle against Britain. The goal of these boycotts was to stop the purchase of imported goods (which could only be purchased from England).
For this to be successful, women would have to increase the production of homespun while finding a way to do without certain products that could not be obtained locally. This gave women’s domestic roles political significance. The success of this political tactic rested on the shoulders of women. Their participation in politics, even in this slight way, produced a change in the way women thought of themselves.
Prior to the revolutionary era, should a woman had made a comment about politics, she would instantly apologize for her ‘mistake’. Women no longer thought of themselves as excluded from politics. They began to discuss politics widely. The discussion of politics among women soon led to political participation outside of domestic roles. A trend started by Esther Reed, women’s groups started collecting money. This money was collected for the sole purpose of being donated to the American war effort.
The money was greatly needed and accepted with much gratitude by General Washington. Female political participation would not stop there. In 1790, New Jersey adopted an election law referring to voters as “he or she”, thereby giving women the right vote more than a century before the 19 th amendment would be added to the constitution. For the first time women could actively participate in politics. Not just by discussion or donations.
The Essay on Woman And Political Status
Woman and Political status According to UN women executive Michelle Bachelet (2012), ‘’Democracy grows stronger with the full and equal participation of women”. Today, as women form half of the world population, their voices are still lacking in politics. According to UN women (2011), worldwide, less than one in five members of most parliaments is a woman. And women make up less than 10 percent ...
Women had the ability to effect the outcome of an election. The American leaders who had proposed the economic boycotts had no idea what they had started. Women’s roles would never be the same. Even though women’s role had changed through the course of the revolution, the men were still reluctant to acknowledge any sort of equality. The revolutionary era had thrown political importance on the domestic duties of women, but it had not changed them. The women were only asked to do what they had previously done.
They were not asked to step outside of the feminine boundaries which had confined them before. Only now the importance was recognized. The discussion of politics slowly became socially acceptable. Other political acts were given feminine characteristics in order to rationalize the fact that women were responsible for them. When the women’s groups contributed money to the war effort, it was used to purchase shirts for the soldiers. The argument was that one of the woman’s domestic responsibilities was sewing.
So in using the money to purchase shirts, Washington had changed a non-feminine act into one that was feminine. The women’s suffrage that briefly occurred in New Jersey was not due to a strong commitment to the principle of equality by the men. It was due to the fact that there was a loophole in the New Jersey constitution. The women were eventually disenfranchised. The revolutionary era may have broken down the barrier confining women from politics, but it did not declare that male and female roles should be the same. A woman’s public role was located in her feminine domestic responsibilities.
The revolutionary era only opened up new ideas which would later grow into the women’s rights movement.
