Women's Work, Women's Lives

On this day after Mother’s Day 2020, let's take a brief look at how some of our female ancestors probably spent their lives. Many of us are used to leisure time, especially in the past months since we have been home, yet that would have been an unbelievable luxury to our working-class grandmothers, aunts, and cousins. The females in our past were often mothers, and without family planning options, the number of children in a household could go into double digits. During the Colonial period, women often worked alongside men, running a farm or plantation. They did most of the cooking and spent long hours spinning yarn, weaving, mending, sewing, and knitting. If the family had a vegetable garden or domestic animals, tending them was “women’s work,” and, of course, looking after children and seeing to their education was the job of women as well. Enslaved or indentured women often had to work in the fields alongside men. And during harvest or if a husband had to travel, all of the women, regardless of status, pitched in. Rarely did married women work outside the home. They were treated as property without personal or economic rights and men were the decision makers.

What happened to unmarried women? Certain jobs were “respectable,” and you may find a female ancestor working as a teacher or governess or, perhaps, owning a small business, such as a dress store or millinery shop. Women also worked as midwives or assisted in apothecaries, boarding houses, or taverns. If an unmarried woman had a father or brother, he often insisted on his right to “protect” her.

By the mid-1800s, industrialization created new jobs and women began to work outside the home.

 (Women at work in a textile factory; engraving, c. 1860, public domain)

Factory owners eagerly hired women and children because they could pay them less than men, and some jobs, especially related to textiles, had already been identified as women’s work. After the Civil War, educational opportunities slowly increased for women, thereby opening more doors for them. Eventually, women were allowed to study medicine, law, science and technology, areas from which women were previously banned. However, attitudes were slow to change. In fact, by the time of the 1910 census, more than three-fourths of working women held the following jobs:

• Servant
• Factory worker
• Laundress
• Teacher
• Dressmaker
• Saleswoman (in a store)
• Stenographer/typist
• Bookkeeper
• Housekeeper
• Boarding housekeeper

(Statistics from “Women’s Occupations in the Early Twentieth Century,” by Sharon S. Atkins, https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/womens-occupations/)

Our female ancestors had to combat gender stereotyping and inequality while assuming enormous responsibilities for themselves, their children, and their households. We can honor them by not losing their stories. Take a look at a few of the strong women who lived and worked in St. Louis honored in the St. Louis City/County Biographies project:

Dr. Kate Garner Walker Beall and her daughter, Dr. Mary Elliott Beall

Jane “Dearie” Hawkins Hay Cummings

Opal Gwendolyn Hudson

Margaretta (Simon) Soehngen Jantzen

Aida Lowena Mayham

Consider adding your ancestor to the project by writing her story (or his; of course, men are welcome!) for the St. Louis City/County Biographies section of our website, where you will find complete instructions for submission.

 Read more about women’s work in America:

“Women’s History in America,” Women’s International Center, http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm

“Lives of Women,” Conner Prairie, https://www.connerprairie.org/educate/indiana-history/lives-of-women/

And don’t forget to watch Judy Russell’s lecture, “’Don’t Forget the Ladies’––A Genealogist’s Guide to Women and the Law,” part of the 2020 StLGS Virtual Family History Conference.