American women history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

American women history - Essay Example â€Å"Women are seen to have always had a rather influential role in determining the general growth and prosperity of the communities in which they happen to live in† (Taylor and Moore, 2008). Colonial North America is seen to have had two major groups of women, these are the women of European decent and the Native Indian women. These two different groups of women are seen to come from extremely different backgrounds and were affected in diverse ways by the change in gender roles. During the 16th century, European women are seen to have had very specific roles. These traditional roles primarily entailed the weaving of clothes, the preparation and serving of food and the education and raising of children. However, when colonial North American settlers first came to the New World, they were greatly appalled to discover that the Native Indian women were the ones who had been assigned all of what was considered to be manual and traditional labor according to their European standar ds. The native Indian women were responsible for the rearing of their children, conducting all the various works in and around their houses, the creation of pottery and the preparation of food while the Native Indian men were seen to be enjoying themselves by going on fishing and hunting expeditions, and the building of homes for their families. To the women European settlers, all these activities conducted by women were essentially activities that were conducted by the European noble class as leisure activities.