The Role of Women In New England

My cousin Emma (Winston's older sister) helping to prepare lunch

This morning Winston had to go to school, so my Aunt Jane and I spent some quality time together. We walked around the town, looking through small shops on the main street. As we were walking, she told me many things about women in New England communities. 

She said that families are quite large, and women are expected to raise about eight babies in their lifetime. Women usually marry in their early twenties; there is significant pressure on marrying as soon as possible. Aunt Jane also told me, as we walked along the muddy pebble road, that women were not equal to men. This is the same as in my home in Jamestown! Men have considerably more influence and power in  society than women. In Virginia, men have almost absolute power over their wives. In contrast, here in New England, women are less powerful than men, but not as much as in Virginia. In Jamestown, there are far more men than women, so women are pursued to marry.

In all the colonies, Aunt Jane told me, men work primarily on the farms while women stay home to be homemakers. Women are viewed as morally weaker than men in all the colonies of America.  As we wandered through the shops, I noticed that all the shopkeepers and merchants are men. But in New England, Aunt Jane said that the law is especially stringent for women.

After learning about the role of women in New England’s society and comparing it to the role of women in my home society of Jamestown, I realize how much responsibility men have, but also realize how much the colonies still need women to succeed.

A portrait of my Aunt Jane, painted when she was 16, living in England