Of course I really admired Dr. Blackwell the first woman doctor. I
admired women who became lawyers in the early
period, too. In regard to women assuming responsibilities in the
colonial and early American periods according to some books that were
written by Elizabeth Anthony Dexter of Boston, women could do anything
they wanted to—in the colonial era—economically, professionally, mainly
in running a farm or a plantation or running an inn or having a
millinery shop. Women could do most anything they wanted to do and they
helped the men build the country, build the colonies, build the society,
the civilization.
But, in the nineteenth century, she claims, men began to think that women
had some positions they wanted and women were too
active, that their role was entirely too equal to that of the male. So
as population increased and we had more men wanting positions, wanting
opportunity, wanting the leadership, [UNCLEAR] they began
to talk about women being the weaker sex, women being the gentle sex,
women needing the protection of men, women being so lovely that they
must be worshipped on a pedestal. Men's selfishness, she thought, pushed
women out of innkeeping and pushed them out of running plantations,
pushed them out of their own little businesses, and took over. Then they
gave the woman the feeling of being adored and of being beautiful and
of being wanted.