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Primary
Source of the Month
“The Sewing Room at A.T. Stewart’s,” Frank
Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, April
24, 1875.
CONTENTS
"With
All the Grace of the [Gender]"
Primary
Source of the Month
Teaching
Strategy
Colonial Williamsburg Teaching Resources
Teaching News
Quotation of the Month
The
next
Electronic Field Trip is
Made In America
March 22, 2007
2006-2007 Teaching
Resources Catalog
2006–2007 Electronic Field
Trip Scholarships
Games,
activities, and resources about life
in colonial America
|
TOP STORIES
"With
All the Grace of the [Gender]"
by Donna Dene Woodward
Traveling through the English countryside in 1741, William Hutton happened upon a blacksmith’s shop, where he saw “one or more females . . . wielding the hammer with all the grace of the [gender].” If Hutton was taken aback, it might not have been so much by the costuming as by finding women working a trade usually practiced by men.
Learn
More
Primary
Source of the Month:
"The Sewing Room at A.T. Stewart’s"
In pre-industrial America, it was assumed by society that a woman’s responsibilities were in the home. Women had a variety of tasks that consumed the majority of each day, including childcare, sewing and mending, cooking, cleaning, food preservation, and general household management. Though some women worked outside the home, this was more the exception than the rule. By the early 1800s this norm began to change rapidly, with increasing numbers of women working outside the home.
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More
Teaching
Strategy: Women in the Workforce
Over the centuries, women’s roles in the workforce have changed significantly. In the 1700s, a woman’s major responsibility was to care for her family and her household. Some women did work outside of the home, but they were the exceptions to the rule. As societal needs and expectations changed, women began to avail themselves of new employment opportunities. Over the centuries, historical events, new technologies, increased access to education, and societal changes have enabled—and sometimes required—women to play a greater role in the workforce.
Learn More
Colonial
Williamsburg Teaching Resources for Your
Classroom
Colonial
Williamsburg offers a variety of quality
instructional materials dealing with 18th-century
life, including:
- Earning a Living as a Tradesperson in Colonial America (lesson unit)
- Nancy’s Story: 1765 (book)
- A Day in the Life (video series)
Learn
More
Teaching
News
March is Women’s History Month, an annual national and international celebration of celebration of women’s history and achievements. For further exploration of the topic, we have assembled some links to several women’s history related web sites.
Learn
More
Quotation
of the Month
"Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly."
—Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. President, in
An Autobiography, 1913
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Volume
5, Issue 7
Historic Triangle