Women and the History of Their Behavior

Culture has taught us about how we are suppose to act as a women and to act otherwise would be unnatural. During our American History what kind of women were thought of as bad or evil? It's usually women who are in power or who act outside their sphere of the home.

How is a real woman suppose to act? According to society and history women should act delicate and weak. Women should be in the home and take care of their children and learn about housewifery. Women should be submissive towards their husband. There would be many ways that a woman would fail to be a true woman. If a woman never got married then there was something wrong with her because she wasn't fulfilling her duties in life as a proper wife. Even If she did get married and never had any children then there would be something wrong with her. As you can see there are many ways that a woman can appear inappropriate and some of these beliefs and expectations we still hold on to even today.

Anne Hutchinson was an ordinary puritan woman who started preaching about her own interpretations about religion. Her target audience was women but after awhile she became very popular and men started showing up to listen to her too. The strong leaders in her community started seeing her as a threat. A threat? The Puritans based their laws on the bible and they believed that men were closer to God and intellectually superior compared to women. Women were forever in debt because of what Eve did but here comes Ms. Anne Hutchinson preaching and letting her voice be heard like a man. It was ruining the balance of the beliefs of the puritan community.