What was the role of women in the English colonies?

Women in the English colonies had three primary objectives: to maintain their households for their husbands, to productively submit themselves to men, and to operate as the spiritual backbone of their home.

Girls were expected to assume the tasks of adult women when they turned 13 years old, and women were largely expected to marry by the age of 20. By doing so, they found some sort of legal identity through the representation of their...

Women in the English colonies had three primary objectives: to maintain their households for their husbands, to productively submit themselves to men, and to operate as the spiritual backbone of their home.

Girls were expected to assume the tasks of adult women when they turned 13 years old, and women were largely expected to marry by the age of 20. By doing so, they found some sort of legal identity through the representation of their husband. Otherwise, women had few legal rights; they could not vote or hold public office.

Thus, most of their work took place within and around the home; these tasks included churning, spinning, weaving, mending and cleaning clothes, making candles, dyeing cloth, gardening, tending to livestock, raising children, and preparing meals.

Acting outside of the appropriate gender roles could result in women being shunned by the rest of society or punished. With little to no formal education (outside of sometimes being taught to read the Bible) and the watchful eye of religious establishments, women had little choice but to stay strictly in line with tradition.