Discussions

On this day women reflect on improvements in the status of women and to assess what still needs to be done.  
 
At the end of the eighteenth century Daughters were considered as Family possessions. In Rural Society the Physical demands of Home Work was overwhelming. In these homes, technology was none existent, which made the burden of Women’s work immense. A married woman, (and 90% were married), or a single one, was basically confined to her home, to care for other family members, the house and the garden.  
 
The housework alone required great physical effort. Women arose before daybreak, even when they were sick. They were responsible to run the house, make the clothes, nurse the sick, and grow and cook most of the food that was consumed by the family. The women of the major City’s were getting indoor plumbing and electricity, but the only labour saving devices for rural women was the Treadle Sewing Machine, a Mechanical Ringer to help with the wash, and the great Cast Iron coal stove which she fired up each morning to cook the meals and boil the water to wash the clothes.  
 
Sickness was an every day problem, and at various unpredictable times throughout the year the woman would have to ignore some of her household chores to care for someone who had succumbed to an illness. The major killers then were Typhoid fever, Diphtheria and La Grippe, (Influenza). These sicknesses killed thousands of people each year. There were frequent items in the News Paper saying, “Lizzie, (or Jimmy) beloved child of (?) Fell asleep in ‘Jesus’ due to Diphtheria. These short bulletins must have meant heartbreak and sorrow to Mothers who lived in fear that a contagious disease would strike her child. Women were also afflicted by Alcoholism, and Mental Illness.  
 
The Women of Well-to-do-Families all employed Cooks, Maids, Nurses, and Laundresses to give them free time to attend Socials, Dances and Tea Parties, but nine out of ten homes had no Domestic Help. Most wives were too busy at home to work out in the Labour Force, although the City wives sometimes took in Borders or did Laundry. The farm wives on the other hand could earn money by selling Butter Cream or Eggs.  
 
Women of the 1800’s not only had to face the hardships of family life but also had the added burden of controlling their Fertility. Farm life could absorb extra children by adding more land or purchasing more livestock, but in the Town’s and City’s this was not possible so the Birth Rate in North America dropped from approximately seven children per family to three and a half by 1900. Women who were married to Professional or Business Husbands routinely had two or less children. This decline in Birth Rate took place before the widespread availability of Birth Control.  
 
Some couples limited the number of children they bore by abstinence while others used the Withdrawal Method. The Rhythm Method, Condoms, Sponges, Douches, and Cervical Caps were some of the wide range of Contraceptives used. None of these methods were very effective and most caused their own special problems. Abstinence required utter self-denial, Withdrawal considerable self-control, and many men objected too, or refused to use Condoms. Douching was difficult because most houses were without bathrooms. The City of Brandon did not install a water system until 1893. These drastic practices may explain why Prostitution was tolerated and used by Husbands on regular occasions. It would appear that only the women who participated in this practice received a bad reputation, but all the above problems except Venereal Disease were eliminated.  
 
The Rhythm Method was doomed to fail because Medical Texts of the Day could not agree about the times of Ovulation, (many couples carefully restricted Sexual Intercourse to a period midway between the “Menses”, (Period) thinking this was a safe time, only to find the Wife Pregnant anyway. After any of these Contraceptive methods failed, poor Women in particular resorted to the most drastic and often fatal method of Birth Control, an Abortion. It is estimated that one in five Pregnancies were Aborted.  
 
The random nature of Birth Control affected Women’s lives in two ways: the first was that it was impossible to plan their lives because she could never plan her Pregnancies. The second was the haphazard nature of birth control had a powerful effect on Sexuality. When the birth of children happened it was an economic threat to her family, and Women were more than Men forced to assume the responsibility of sexual control.  
 
Women had next to no chances of becoming financially independent. If the family claim on her life was threatened, legal constraints were used to enforce this claim.  
 
The Marriage Contract into which all Brides freely entered into resembled an Indenture Agreement between a Master and his Servant. Economically speaking women could be seen as the last Class of Indentured Servants in North America. Under the terms of a Standard Marriage Contract, a Husband promised to support his Wife. This made him single handedly responsible for the economic support of his family. In return, the Wife promised to Serve and Obey him. Many Men objected to their Wives working outside the home because they saw this as violating this Solemn Agreement.  
 
Once Married, only one in ten women Divorced. The reasons for this was due to several factors: the maturity of the wedded participants, the burden of supporting two separate households, the difficulty of Single Women to support themselves and children, and the Stigma attached to being Divorced. The Law also played an important role in keeping married couples together. There was a small rise in Divorce in the late 1800’s and so Government’s between 1889 and 1906 greatly reduced the Statutory Grounds for Divorce. The Law was also used to force the traditions that bound women to the family, for example, women’s efforts to use Birth Control was met with severe Legal resistance.  
 
From the middle of the 1800’s a movement of middle class men, led by Doctors and Clergymen had sought to inhibit what they claimed to be “an immoral trend among middle class women to restrict Childbearing.” They warned of “Racial Suicide” by which they meant the extinction of white-Anglo-Saxon Protestants. These Crusaders fought to ban contraception and Abortion. By the year 1900 the dissemination by the Royal Mail Service and Advertising of contraceptives in Magazines and Newspaper’s was illegal.  
Most Provinces had banned Abortion except to save the life of the mother.  
 
For the women who managed to bypass the Laws, efforts to control their fertility and enforce the family claim found they were restricted in other ways. They were restricted in the ability to engage in the economic world beyond their homes. Women could not enter a business contract without her Husband’s approval. In some places a Woman’s earnings belonged to her Husband and she did not even own her own clothes.  
 
It was in the realm of Public Affairs that Women suffered the most discrimination. Viewed as dependants of their Husband or Father, Women cold not serve on Jury’s, could not be elected to office, and could not vote.  
 
Source: Daly House Museum Archives.