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Discussions regarding the early experiences of women within American colonies during the 17th to 18th centuries are often overlooked. A majority of historians conclude a simple answer that American colonial women were better off then women back in England. Within Mary B. Norton’s, “The Evolution of White Women’s Experience in Early America,” Norton argues that the experiences of women in the American colonies was more complex then what was originally thought. I found it fascinating that while women in colonies experienced higher bargaining power when it came to marriage, a lax enforcement of English common law, and border range of choices, they still faced challenges. Concepts over a patriarchal society and a nuclear family were still prevalent within colonial society just as it was an England. The difference being that American colonies, most of the time, lacked traditional communal institutions. Gender role expectations remained the same within colonial society, though vastly different patterns developed within individual colonies. Similar to the comparison of the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies in Karen O. Kupperman’s Jamestown Project, Norton compares the differences in lifestyle within the Chesapeake and New England colonies. And, just as in Kupperman’s work, both colonies developed differently due to environmental and economic factors. For women in the Chesapeake colonies they experienced a rough environment, a lack of patriarchal family practices, high mortality rates, and less likelihood of marriage due to competition from native born Chesapeake women. In comparison, New England women experienced a balanced sex ratio, a high livelihood of marriage, a stable/sustainable environment, and the influential ideas of two strong institution (the Puritan church and the stable patriarchal family). Even with the certain restrictions placed upon women in both colonies, it still seemed that they had more freedom and choices then they did back in England. That is why I found the two concepts brought up by Mary B. Norton, regarding the certain benefits women in England possessed, to be a revealing.
Two concepts separated the lifestyles of English women from American colonial women. First, English women could earn wages and live independently of a paternal household for a period of time so long as it followed the terms of their marriage. And second, English women were actively engaged in a market economy, exchanging goods and services along with men. Few American women had similar experiences within their communal colonial societies. It is interesting to think that even outside of patriarchal England, some American colonial women still faced restrictions depending on the colony they had settled with. I agree with the statement given by Allison Roberts, “not all of the women had the same experiences because not all of colonies treated women the same, there is no one way to define colony women.” As time would go by, colonial women would face even more challenges as the introduction of slave labor would undermined their martial status within the household. For colonial women from the 17th to 18th centuries, they gained new found freedoms within society, while at the same time they also faced new societal restrictions to endure.