Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, on her book, focused on defining the wide range of possible roles that women had in colonial America. Ulrich organized her book around conceptions of women taken from the Bible: Eve, Bathsheba, and Jael. The characters translate woman's role as a housewife, mother, and that of a deputy husband. 1 Women relied on each other as well as their family to get through every day and deal with struggles that come along. This paper discusses the option of how some roles expected of women make it difficult to perform other roles.
The sphere of females in the 17 th and 18 th century is expanded in the book by showing that women were not restricted to one very limiting domestic roles. Each role played by women contained both communal and domestic aspects and responsibilities, indicating that they juggled multiple roles at any given time. The role of deputy husband, for instance, exposed them to some larger responsibilities of the household while husbands were away, often for extended periods of time. The role was played frequently, especially during wars and allowed women to familiarize with some men's responsibilities in a socially responsible way.
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The role of deputy husbands became accepted as a woman's way of exercising duties outside their housewifery and domesticity prescribed spheres. However, some roles were eventually blended as wives were expected to be experts in managing homes and taking care of children with additional roles of assisting in their husbands’ economic affairs. Wives were their husband’s representatives as well as surrogates when circumstances demanded it. 2 The double standard only allowed women to only do as much as the society told them they could do but were expected to accomplish much more. The role of deputy husband became burdensome for some and important for others. The role became unique to each woman because it meant they could inherit a new responsibility as long as it furthered their family’s good and was acceptable to their husbands. 3 The role allowed women to explore other various responsibilities without fear of social repercussions.
Bibliography
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1982.
1 Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1982).
2 Ulrich, Good Wives, 49- 50
3 Ulrich, Good Wives, 38
