Monday, February 4, 2013

"Womanly" Duties

For homework in my Great Works class Monday, I had to read an article called "Powhatan Indian Women," which tells about how women lived during this time period and the jobs they had to do. The article was written in 1998 but was set from the 1500s. After reading about the jobs that were done by women, I automatically began thinking of this class and how it would relate. Some of the women's jobs during this time were to plant crops, dig bad wood from canoe's, supervise children in fields, gather wood, build housing, and they did the canoe traveling. The argument of the article was that women were a vital role in society. These job listings shocked me majorly.

I've always heard that women had the less manual labor jobs and were "in the kitchen" or taking care of the children. Some of the jobs, I do understand, but there are others that really confused me and made me wonder why. Why did women have to do canoe work, gather wood, and build housing when they were always seen as not strong and needing to be doing household "womanly" duties?

The biggest question I had was when did everything change? In the 1500s, if women were doing these types of jobs, why was it never heard of? This is the first time I've ever heard of women doing these types of jobs. When did things change that women were only to be doing household duties and raising the children and why the sudden change? Over the years, what was so significant to change the way women were treated when it came to jobs they had to do?

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