One example includes: When a daughter had a wealthy father who left property inheritance, she could not use the property to its full benefit because of restrictions. Koehler wrote that an inheritance provided "some immediate purchasing power, but did little to increase their occupational possibilities"" (Koehler 10). However, the amount of the inheritance was typically not enough for purchasing a home or even enough to "rent a shop and stock it with goods"" (Koehler 11).
To exist as a member of the submissive, inferior, financially dependent class, young women would participate in domestic servitude. "Female servants assisted with household duties, child care, and garden maintenance--but always under the supervision of a "Mistress"" or "Master," whose orders had to be obeyed unless they violated criminal law " (Koehler 11). There were very little to no perks of the job. It would provide them with a place to sleep and food to eat. "Even with the addition of a sum for the room and board furnished by the master, the female domestic drew one of the lowest annual incomes of any working person", usually "50 to 60 percent of the male hired servant's wage"" (Koehler 11). Women knew they wouldn't be able to save enough money to live off of with a servant job, so they would use this job as an outlet. "In the first three decades of settlement, then, a handful of women used servitude as a vehicle for marital advancement, although not as a means to accumulate money for future investment" (Koehler 11). For most women at that time, housewifery was the most important job out there. .
Married women could not do anything except their wifely duties. There were some jobs that women could do to help around the community such as being a wet nurse, teacher, doctor, and midwife. Each of these jobs paid close to nothing and compared to men's salary a small percentage. Wet nurses were used because "puritan mothers sometimes found it impossible to perform that "duty.