18th Century women and 21st Century women

Martha Ballard's Diary was the most important document to study women’s lifestyle in America in the 18th Century. Besides housework, Martha was an active participant in the community, especially in helping pregnant women. Martha kept a record, her diary, which was uncommon for women in the 18th Century because most women in the 18th Century were uneducated. Martha wrote her diary from 1785 until her death in 1812. From her diary one can see the huge differences between women’s way of life in the 18th Century and now. 18th Century women were abused, obligated to do all housework and farming by themselves, didn’t have the opportunity to attend school, had no participation in politics, and gave birth in traditional unsafe methods.
Women had to do many tasks in the 18th Century. They washed clothes with their hands. Women’s work included both housework and farming. As Martha stated in her diary “a woman’s work is never done.” Women used to do the house work by themselves without help from their husband. On the contrary today’s women usually share house work with their husband. They use machines to do laundry. Women do any kind of job men do.
Now, women’s participation in politics is increasing. Currently, there are 78 women in the US House, and 18 women in the Senate. That is so much progress compared to 18th Century women where women cannot participate in politics in all count.
In the 21st Century, women can give birth much safer than in the 18th Century. In the 18th Century women gave birth at home with cultural remedies. Due to that reason many women died during child birth. Now days, as a result of development in science and technology, there are better medical equipments. Women can be treated well starting their first day of pregnancy until they give birth therefore; women can give birth much safer than in 18th Century in hospital with modern medical equipments. In the 18th Century, women bore many children with little gap without enough time to recover. For example Martha had nine children with two years age gap between five of her children. Giving birth to too many children without complete recovery leads to reproductive diseases and possibly death. Now, with a better education women give birth with enough gaps to recover their body that decrease women and infants death at birth.
When “The Declaration of Independence” is issued by the Continental Congress, Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband John to consider women in the constitution for the thirteen colonies. John’s response was no, but today women’s right is included in the constitution.
18th Century writers did not record women’s achievement. Even though Martha Ballard helped women to give birth to over one thousand children, her achievement is not recorded in any historical documents. If her diary was not discovered, we would not know about her. But in the 21st Century there are books about women like biography of Rosa Parks. There are also advice books for women like “Get rid of him “by Joyce Verdal. In the 18th Century women had no right to choose their mate, but now they can choose their loved one freely. In the 18th Century royal families chose men physicians than women even though most child births in 18th Century were done in the hands of female.
In education there is a huge difference between today’s women and 18th Century women in America. Most 18th Century women were uneducated. Few women were literate. Martha was among the few women who were literate. Now days, more women graduate from college than men. According to the newspaper USA Today right now women make up 57% of all college students in Minnesota.
Even though there is a lot different between Martha’s life and women’s life in the 21st Century, There are some similarities. Women in the 21st Century cook food, take care of children, and do most house works like 18th Century women.
Martha Ballard's Diary was the most important document to study women’s lifestyle in America in the 18th Century. Besides house work, women were an active participant in the community. Despite their great accomplishment, historians in 18th Century didn’t keep enough historical records about women. If Martha’s diary was not discovered, it would be hard to learn women’s work in the 18th Century. From the diary one can see the huge difference between women’s way of life in 18th Century and now. 18th Century women were obligated to do all house works and farming without the help of their husband, didn’t have the opportunity to go to school, had no participation in politics, and gave birth in traditional unsafe methods. In past two hundred years women’s rights had changed slowly, but still there is room for improvement. Till this day some men in America are not aware of the equality of men to women, the huge contribution they made in the society and their potential to contribute more if they get equal opportunity.