Feme Sole
Image Source: History.org
Women who were unmarried were called feme sole. During this time, society believed that women had been assigned by God to be a helpmate to men. If a woman did not get married, she was perpetually stuck between being a child and an adult in the eyes of her community--never quite able socially to establish themselves as a grown woman. Unmarried women were, therefore, seldom allowed to be in charge of a household.
It was also a common belief that a woman's brains were smaller and weaker than a man's and therefore couldn't think rationally . . . Women and children were classified as non-compus mentus--people without the ability to have necessary comprehension" (Berkin, 2018). |
Therefore, a woman's goal was to be married to a man and become a notable housewife. This is the reason why sons were given land, while girls were given only a movable property, such as a dowry.
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What does the author mean in the last sentence of the paragraph below?
If a white woman did not want to be a farm wife, assuming she had a choice in the matter, then she had only a narrow range of alternatives . . . she had to be located in an urban area, where she could support herself in one of three ways: by running a small school in her home; by opening a shop, usually but not always one that sold dry goods; or by in some manner using the household skills she had learned from her mother as a means of making money . . . There were no other choices and women who selected one of these choices . . . were frequently regarded as anomalous by their contemporaries" (Norton, 44).
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Analyze the following quote--what could be both positive and negative about being a feme sol?
Closed out of professions . . . and with few acceptable occupations outside the household, most women who did not marry faced bleak futures as dependents in the homes of their parents or married sisters. As a feme sole, or woman alone, a colonial woman had access to a broader legal identity than she would as a matron. A feme sole could sue and be sued, earn what wages she could, buy and sell property, and will her assets to her heirs" (Berkin, 5). |
If women were unmarried they "faced bleak futures as dependents in the homes of their parents or married sisters" (Berkin, 5). Single women were given the most unwanted chore of spinning the thread on the spinning wheel that was put in the corner of the household. Thus, they were known as ‘spinsters.’
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