Colonial America: When a Woman's Place Was Not Her Own

In Colonial America (1600s–1700s), women were expected to serve—quietly, dutifully, and invisibly. Their roles were tied to survival: keep the fire burning, raise the children, tend the crops, obey your husband, and, most of all, don’t speak out.

A woman wasn’t her own person. Legally, once she married, she became part of her husband. This was called coverture, a British law that meant she couldn’t own property, sign a contract, or control her own wages. Even single women had limited rights.

Work didn’t mean freedom—it meant obligation. White women ran households and bore child after child. Enslaved Black women endured the brutality of both racism and gendered labor, working the fields and raising the children of those who enslaved them. Native women had different roles—often with more power—but colonial expansion crushed much of that autonomy.

Girls were rarely educated. Reading a Bible? Maybe. Writing your own thoughts? That wasn’t encouraged. Obedience was seen as virtue.

But even then, some women pushed against the limits. Midwives gained quiet authority in their communities. Others ran taverns, managed farms, or spoke up—like Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from Massachusetts for challenging male church leaders.

This era reminds us: being told to “stay in your place” isn’t new. But neither is speaking up. Even when the law said no, women were already finding ways to say yes—to leadership, to learning, to legacy.

Sources:

• Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650–1750.

• Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800.

• U.S. National Archives: https://www.archives.gov

• History.com article: “Colonial Women” https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/colonial-women