Random women: some background information
Aug. 19th, 2012 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithI thought before I did anymore random women posts, I should provide some sort of historical/societal framework to fit them into. I'm going to keep it simple because, as I have noted in places, there are a lot of side issues that it is easy to get distracted by and, as I noted in places, it sometimes goes into areas I don't know much about :)
We'll start with the industrial revolution, and the idea that mass production & the removal of manufacturing from the local setting removed women's source of economic & social power (that is, if you don't like someone, you don't buy from them) making them dependent. Although at the same time, the growing demand for unskilled labour created opportunities for women to work outside the home.
Two points to stop and consider there.
Firstly, that phrase "working outside the home". The alternative obviously is "working in the home", which is looking after children and doing housework. But what about self-employment/working in the family business, which includes shopkeeping in all its flavours, inn-keeping, farming, probably most of the "traditional" areas of employment for women, other than service. That could all be considered "working within the home".
Second point, how does that work in an Australian context? Early Australia wasn't exactly industralised. (Also I wonder, did the shortage of women affect the power balance?)
While we're in that period, two popular topics of conversation in women's history are the nature of convict women (whores or innocents taken advantage of?), and the kidnapping of indigenous women by settlers. Most debate on both topics seems to rely on the idea that women are passive receivers of whatever at them and they are some homogenous blob that experiences the world in a uniform matter. Fortunately, there's been some more intelligent voices to the discussion in recent times.
Moving on, there's the coming of civilisation in the middle of the century and also an increasing middle class (leisure time + education). Now about this time there seems to have been a push to put women back into the home. That usually requires a general perception that women have moved "outside the home" more than they should. (Due to shortage of labour in an early settler society that was no more civilised??)
As a side note, while reading for an essay, I found there was much discussion in the columns of the newspapers abut why women would chose working in a factory, with the poor conditions & pay, over being in service.
The second half of the century saw an increase in women's involvement in local affairs (charity work & such) and politics in general. Political reforms, changes to property laws, agitating for the vote etc. Obviously this mostly involved the educated, time-on-her hands, middle-class woman. But not exclusively. If you look at the increasing influence of the labour organisations, there are women involved, sometimes in their own right, sometimes by supporting their husbands. (Here's a question for you, when did those husbands get the right to vote? i.e. when was universal male suffrage introduced?). Women are also starting to take more direct control of their fertility during this time.
The century turns, women gain the vote in the new Federal government and many of the new states, they have more legal power, influence in the media, and a declining birth rate etc so... there's a push to put women back in the house and have more babies.
But then comes this world war thing.
We'll start with the industrial revolution, and the idea that mass production & the removal of manufacturing from the local setting removed women's source of economic & social power (that is, if you don't like someone, you don't buy from them) making them dependent. Although at the same time, the growing demand for unskilled labour created opportunities for women to work outside the home.
Two points to stop and consider there.
Firstly, that phrase "working outside the home". The alternative obviously is "working in the home", which is looking after children and doing housework. But what about self-employment/working in the family business, which includes shopkeeping in all its flavours, inn-keeping, farming, probably most of the "traditional" areas of employment for women, other than service. That could all be considered "working within the home".
Second point, how does that work in an Australian context? Early Australia wasn't exactly industralised. (Also I wonder, did the shortage of women affect the power balance?)
While we're in that period, two popular topics of conversation in women's history are the nature of convict women (whores or innocents taken advantage of?), and the kidnapping of indigenous women by settlers. Most debate on both topics seems to rely on the idea that women are passive receivers of whatever at them and they are some homogenous blob that experiences the world in a uniform matter. Fortunately, there's been some more intelligent voices to the discussion in recent times.
Moving on, there's the coming of civilisation in the middle of the century and also an increasing middle class (leisure time + education). Now about this time there seems to have been a push to put women back into the home. That usually requires a general perception that women have moved "outside the home" more than they should. (Due to shortage of labour in an early settler society that was no more civilised??)
As a side note, while reading for an essay, I found there was much discussion in the columns of the newspapers abut why women would chose working in a factory, with the poor conditions & pay, over being in service.
The second half of the century saw an increase in women's involvement in local affairs (charity work & such) and politics in general. Political reforms, changes to property laws, agitating for the vote etc. Obviously this mostly involved the educated, time-on-her hands, middle-class woman. But not exclusively. If you look at the increasing influence of the labour organisations, there are women involved, sometimes in their own right, sometimes by supporting their husbands. (Here's a question for you, when did those husbands get the right to vote? i.e. when was universal male suffrage introduced?). Women are also starting to take more direct control of their fertility during this time.
The century turns, women gain the vote in the new Federal government and many of the new states, they have more legal power, influence in the media, and a declining birth rate etc so... there's a push to put women back in the house and have more babies.
But then comes this world war thing.
