Late 19th Century example essay topic

363 words
During the late Nineteenth Century our country was going through an industrial change. With this change the status and contributions of women, african americans, native americans, and immigrants were also changing. Most of the changes were positive and were encouraged by most. As families became strapped for cash women were forced to work and were given jobs of somewhat decent pay and had an essential role in the emerging of factories. Most african americans were freed of slavery during this point and they started to enjoy greater rights as citizens. Native americans were pushed onto reservations and immigrants came in from everywhere.

Women in the late nineteenth century were making a lot of progress from their days of being strictly house wives and care takers. Many laws were granted to women who were married allowing them to have legal rights to their wages and to property. Unfortunately, even with this good change many women of different ethnicity were treated unequal. Through the late 19th century white women were obtaining jobs as clerks, secretaries and even in retailing. While women of color such as african american women and immigrant women had jobs like cooking, cleaning and lots of janitorial work. Since even the work field was racist towards women, many immigrant women found themselves working in harsh exploitative jobs in domestic work, migrant agricultural labor and low-wage manufacturing.

Most of these reforms, such as giving women legal rights to their wages, were sought to preserve the households in an industrial society and with this reinforced the tendency to view women as secondary wage earners regardless of their contributions to the family. The nineteenth century was a time of radical change in the political and legal status of African Americans. Many of these men and women still worked as farmers or in some type or farm labor. In the late 19th century about half of black men and 35% of black women worked these types of jobs compared to 1/3 of white men and 8% of white women. Most of these African Americans were still living in the south.