In early America, women were viewed as less important than men. This lack of respect is demonstrated when looking through pre-Victorian era History books. Try to find one story about a female who was given the opportunity or encouraged to become a successful trailblazer, soldier, engineer, architect or professor. It's obvious that men "ruled the world" and women were their distant counterparts. But in the turbulent years of settling our country, lowering women to a place of unquestioned submissiveness, led to some serious problems.
In the beginning stages of settling our country, the only active participants were men. No women were present during the first few years of the process, for only men were considered strong, brave, intelligent and resilient enough to endure the freeze of winter and the harsh wilderness conditions. Once the men realized that women were actually a basic essential -for cooking, mending clothes, harvesting and sexual interactions - they sent news to the homeland to send women as soon as possible. .
When the women arrived in the new world, they were met with unkind, aggressive and domineering men. There are written records of females arriving to be with the men yet being badly mistreated, abused and looked down upon. It was travesty for the women who had given up everything they knew to attend to the men. And the men, in turn, suffered the consequences of their brutality, for typically, women do not respond favorably to men who are dirty, cruel and unkind.
As the years went on, the status of women continued to drop until "The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women.their submerged status.this invisibility (we are) something like black slaves.".
The women who did arrive in a few colonies were sent there too be "imported as sex slaves, child bearers, companions. "2 This shows the callousness of the men of our "New World ", beyond any shadow of doubt. Another source writes "in the great chain of being, women occupied a slot just above the beast of the field.
