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Article: Women in Public Life, Business, and Professions
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE, BUSINESS, AND PROFESSIONS
WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE, BUSINESS, AND PROFESSIONS.
Women have played a crucial part in the economic development of the United States since the time of the first colonial settlers. Women (endentured, slave, and free) worked long hours beside men cultivating the land. The jobs of child care, housework, spinning, weaving, and sewing were always exclusively theirs, and farm wives and daughters often brought in cash by selling butter or eggs. Although there were no opportunities for professional training for women in the colonial era, they served as nurses, midwives, elementary school teachers, shopkeepers, and innkeepers. And colonial women ...