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.

Celebrating a Pirate Queen and Calling for Your Biographies

March is National Women's History Month and St. Patrick's Day is just a day away, so this week we will celebrate the life of a remarkable woman of Irish heritage. Be thinking about those amazing women in your own family and how you can capture their stories as we examine the life of someone you may not know.

Have you heard of Grace O'Malley, "the notorious Pirate Queen of western Ireland"? Not surprising if you haven't as most Americans know nothing about Grace, but she was formidable! In the west of Ireland, in a remote, romantic spot on Achill Island, is the windblown stone tower called Grace O'Malley's Castle. It was here that this writer first learned about Grace, and her story is astonishing.

Born around 1530 into a family known for piracy and ruthlessness, when she was about twelve, Gráinne ni Mhaille, the only girl, was eager to travel with her father to Spain. Her mother refused to let her go, so Gráinne shaved her head and disguised herself as a boy, earning her a nickname she would carry for life. The Irish name Gráinne translates to Grace and Mhaol means bald, so she became Granuaile, pronounced "graw-nya-wail," or Bald Grace.

For years, she worked with her father, learning to be a sea trader, raider, and captain, as well as a diplomat and a great leader. She married twice, the first time at just fifteen, and had three children before her husband died in battle. His death left Granuaile, then twenty-three years old, in possession of a castle and numerous fighting ships. Her second husband owned Rockfleet Castle on Clew Bay near Newport. She stayed with him long enough to bear him a son and then take both the castle and the baby from him by literally putting him out the door.

Grace O'Malley went on to be the undisputed warrior queen of the western Irish coastline. She fought numerous battles for territory on land, led pirate ships at sea, and went head to head with Queen Elizabeth I in Greenwich, England, where she refused to bow to the monarch, saying that she was a queen herself. According to legend, Grace carried a dagger to the meeting, saying it was for her own protection. The women negotiated in Latin, as Grace did not speak English and Elizabeth knew no Irish. They reached an agreement that Elizabeth would release Grace's sons and her half-brother, who were being held as hostages, and Grace would stop terrorizing English ships off the Irish coast and supporting Irish rebels against the English. (The graphic shows Grace standing on the left and Queen Elizabeth on the right. There are no known contemporary portraits of Grace O'Malley; this is an illustration from Anthologia Hibernica, volume 11, published in 1793.)

Grace lived into her seventies, dying in 1603 at Rockfleet Castle. She is the stuff of Irish legends to this day. You can read a lot more about Grace online and this is a good place to start.

 Women in Your Family

Your turn! Is there an interesting woman or two in your family whose story deserves to be told? What better time to sit down in front of your computer and start writing? And what to do with your biography once it's done? Share it, of course! Give copies to your family so they know their heritage. Is your female ancestor a St. Louisan? Then we welcome her story as part of our St. Louis City/County Biographies project. You can get all the details on our website.