Tradeswomen in Early America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tradeswomen in Early America - Essay Example Women of all races were expected to do their share of work, and it would have been considered odd or even unthinkable for them to refuse. Interestingly enough, many women actually became shoemakers during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but societal attitudes toward this work were unsurprising given the period. Men who made shoes for a living did precisely that - they were skilled artisans and expected to be compensated for their work. Women, however, often worked at home rather than in a shop and performed exactly the same work for little or no wages. For example, in her book Men, Women, and Work, Blewett (1990) recounts the story of Sarah Smith Emery, who lived in Essex County, Massachusetts in the late eighteenth century, and whose uncles Joe and Ben ran a shoe-making store. One time, the men received an order for "one hundred pairs of sealskin boots that had to be finished in five days" (p. 4). She recounts how, after Sarah had stitched for five days, her fianc found her "exhausted and covered with dirty sealskin oilHer account of the incident mentions no wages paid to her for the work" (p. 4). In a case such as this, a woman became a virtual slave to her family.