Changing Gender Ideologies in New England from 1600s to 1800s

Gender ideologies, especially in relation to women, changed significantly between the 1600s and the 1800s in New England. In the 1600s the New England region of the New World was mostly made up of Puritan run British colonies. By the 1800s these colonies not only were no longer run by the leaders of the Puritan religion, but they had also became states in the new country called the United States of America. This change in the region coincided with the change in gender ideologies relating to women, but this ideology transition was not only affected by the political transformation from colony to country. The change in belief of what the ideal women meant was also affected by the turn in religious belief from the predestination Puritan beliefs to the free will Evangelism beliefs.

During the 1600s in Puritan New England the gender ideals for women regarded them as necessary workers in the community's effort to survive, but still recognized them as insubordinate to men. Becoming a wife was the expected profession for them, thus "Puritan daughters were likely to be wives before they were twenty." (1) As a wife New England Puritan women were expected to engage in "productive and reproductive tasks." (2) In the context of Puritan New England reproductive tasks for women included helping with farm duties; making useable goods for her family and/or others; and doing traditional household chores. Women's reproductive tasks involved childbearing and childrearing, but this was often secondary to her productive chores. Often the father or other male figure helped in childrearing, especially in helping to raise men, because according to Puritan belief men possessed "superior moral judgment and greater rationality." (3) The moral superiority of men is based on the Puritan belief that women are daughter's of Eve and thus morally inferior.