Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Políticas

Periodo Ordinario II

Women in the 19th century

Modern Short Story

María Alejandra González Durán

Olga González Abad

Guayaquil, september 2020

The role of women in the 19th century. What was their role in society? What could they
do? What couldn't they do? Is this role reflected in the story?Write a paragraph of
about 300 words.

19nth century women were mostly gender norms, they were dominated by religion
and stuck to that with so much morality, and had so much benevolence. They generally had
their influence through the home, that was their space to nurture children and sheltered
husbands.
They could do things such as work in factories, or in domestic service for richer
houses, or maybe secondary work in a family business. They also had home based work such
as to knit, fixing shoes, laundry, preparation of snacks to sell in the streets, and others.
Women were very unpaid or badly paid for that work and this was in addition to their work at
home that included cooking, cleaning, child care and others.
What they couldn't do included having their own money, because their earnings went
directly to home expenses or to their husbands. They couldn't work while they were pregnant,
it was impossible for them to serve on a jury, couldn´t testify in court, to intervene in law or
their husbands work, it was unthinkable to vote or have a political position, getting divorced,
using birth control, leave their husbands, refusing sex with them, working the night shift, hate
housework, and others.
This time of gender inequality was hard for them, and women were expected to
remain subservient to their fathers and husbands. In the story, this role is shown up a little,
because it has a different meaning. In spite of that, it shows Louise as a very sentimental
person, also her sister. This is because as a wife, they didn't have so many freedoms, and they
desired that. They were refused to them because of the repressive nature of marriage and the
devotion to their husbands. It's amazing how they didn't have that right and now we have it,
and nowadays, we have so many new things to fight for.

Reference
Social Welfare (2020).
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/woman-suffrage/women-in-nineteenth-century-a
merica 2/