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Mary Beth Norton reexamines the evolution of white colonial women between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Early historiographical examination led to the belief that a woman’s role in society saw steady decline in the nineteenth century, implying that their status in the early colonial period had been one of more importance. Norton argues that the early “paradigm is simplistic and unsophisticated, resting its assessment of women’s status solely on one factor (their economic function in society) and assumes that a less complex social system automatically brings higher standing for women.” (Norton, 595) A white woman’s role in colonial society can and should be defined using a wider range of anthropological features, such as: demographic patterns, religion, the law, household organization, ideas and behavior inherent in Old World societies that traveled across the Atlantic, and colonists attitudes toward themselves and their societies. (Norton, 595) Taking into account these more complicated aspects, Norton finds women’s roles between the early colonial period and the American Revolution to never really have experienced a monumental shift, while allowing for obvious differences created by developments in religion and the economy.
I find myself disagreeing slightly with her analysis of early colonial women and their roles within the development of their settlements. During that difficult period, I feel that an “all hands on deck” method was adopted out of necessity. Women were integral members in the creation of new settlements in the Chesapeake and New England arenas, not only maintaining households but also cultivating land, building shelters, procreating to allow for future generations, and even taking up arms to defend against incursions in some instances. As Alec reminds us by discussing women’s roles in the economies of Potosi and the Yoruba, society and situation will always dictate a member’s, and even more specifically, a particular gender’s status in a settlement. Because the populations of early colonial settlements were so small, women had to have been relied upon to perform duties far above and beyond normalcies carried over from England. In my opinion, as populations grew, women digressed to more traditional roles because society’s demands were once again being filled by males. I feel this was the template for all nations during Atlantic colonization.