Today most girls have many choices: they can be teachers, nurses, doctors, scientists, homemakers or astronauts!
In the past, women did not have many options. Everyone knew that most young women were destined primarily to be wives and mothers. Today there are some people
who do not think being a homemaker is a good career choice. They think that homemaking is too easy and doesn't challenge women enough intellectually. They would
rather women do the most menial work outside the home rather than be homemakers and mothers.
Let's first learn a little about what housewives in the past did, and how the work they did was CRITICAL for the comfort and well-being of their families.
THE 19th CENTURY HOUSEWIFE
Being a homemaker or housewife in the 19th century required a great deal of knowledge and lots of work. Being a good homemaker wasn't a job for women of low
intelligence or who were lazy.
FOOD
Even if she had a cook, the housewife had better know how to prepare many different kinds of foods herself because she often had to teach untrained servants, or even
fill in if a servant quit.
Nineteenth century cooking required more that just opening a can or micro-waving a tray. There were very few "convenience foods" in the 19th century. Sauces, such as
ketchup, that we buy ready-made today were usually made at home then. Thrifty housewives also made their own vinegars and yeast, too. Spices had to be ground, and
dried beans soaked. A housewife could not be too squeamish, either, as she often had to dress fowls and cut up meat.
Cooking was not an easy job. Before the late 19th century, most cooking was done over open fires using heavy cast-iron pots and pans. Being burned was not an
uncommon accident. Women wore wool aprons to help protect their skirts from catching fire.
Since there was no refrigeration, perishable foods had to be preserved in some way. Fruit and vegetables were canned, made into jelly, or dried for the winter. Meat
was dried, salted, pickled or smoked. Men were usually in charge of the butchering of animals, but women had to cut up the meat. Even relatively wealthy women might
help in packing the fresh meat into barrels of salt to preserve it, or in grinding pork for sausages.
Women in the cities could buy food from vendors or local markets, but women in the countryside usually had to carefully plan for the winter. A woman had to know how
much food her family would need (as well as how many candles and bars of soap) to last until the next year. The canned or pickled foods were kept in a large pantry or
down in a cellar, where they would stay as cool as possible.
People in the 19th century did not have refrigerators like we do today. To find out how different foods were stored without electricity...click FOOD
PRESERVATION
During the summer months, many country women and even some town-women kept a kitchen garden or herb garden to supply at least some of the food for their
families. These gardens could be quite large and needed a great deal of work. Many families depended on their gardens to provide enough food for themselves through
the winter.
DAIRY WORK
Dairy work was an important area of food production, as milk is a good source of calcium and protein.
Dairy work started with getting the milk from the dairy animal. Some women were responsible for milking the cows or goats; sometimes this was a man's or boy's job.
Once the milk was brought into the house, the housewife or her daughters usually took over. The milk was strained and put into flat pans to wait for the cream to rise.
Cream is the fat in milk, and it raises to the top if cow's milk is allowed to sit. Once the cream had risen, it could then be skimmed off the top of the milk and sold or
used for other purposes, such as making butter. The skim milk could be used for other purposes, and was sometimes used for feeding pigs.
Whole milk, with the cream, as well as skim milk, were often used for making cheese.
"Sweet milk" for drinking was often put into a bucket or pail and put into a spring-house or let down into the well, or put into a cellar to keep it cool. Some people also
drank buttermilk, the liquid left over from butter-making.
Eggs were also considered part of dairy work. Eggs had to be gathered every day and were usually kept in a cool place. Excess eggs, if any, were sold or traded.
WASHING CLOTHES & SPOT REMOVAL
While people in the past tried to be clean and neat, standards of cleanliness were not the same that they are today.
Today we usually wash our clothes in the washing machine or take them to the dry cleaners after wearing them once or twice. Things were much different in the 19th
century. Many clothes were made of fabrics that were not easily washed. These were often brushed, sponged, rubbed with chalk or treated with different kinds of
solvents. Rather than being washed, clothes were often just hung up to "air" out.
Even if clothing was made of washable silk, linen or cotton, some clothes were so elaborate that they had to be taken apart to be washed.
Washing clothes was usually a day-long job requiring gallons of water (few people had running water, so this often had to be carried by hand), at least 2 large pots,
harsh soap and lots of "elbow grease." Women boiled the clothes in the large pot, scrubbed them on a washboard, and then rinsed them several times before wringing
out the water and hanging the clothes to dry.
As hard as this may seem, it was actually an improvement over the earlier method, in which women took their clothing to the local creek or river and beat them with
paddles to get out the dirt. When soap was not available, some housewives simply soaked clothing in a solution of lye-water (made from ashes) to help loosen the dirt.
After the clothes were dry, they might be starched to make them stiff. Starch could be made from potatoes although later it was often purchased from a store. The
clothes were then sprinkled with water and ironed using a heavy metal iron called a sad iron that was heated on a stove.
Washing clothes was such hard work that families often tried to hire a laundress, even if they did not have any other servants. In towns and cities, a housewife might hire
a "French Laundress" to care for delicate or elaborate clothing.
Washday was often on Monday to give the housewife plenty of time to dry and iron the clothes during the rest of the week. On that day, many housewives planned
simple meals such as soups or stews that "cooked themselves" or ate left-overs.
SEWING, SPINNING AND WEAVING
Although some clothes were available ready-made, most women either made clothing or hired a seamstress. Before the Civil War, most families did not have
sewing machines, so all sewing was done by hand.
Commercially-made cloth was available in many areas by the early 1800s, but some thrifty housewives still spun thread and wove their own fabric.
Remember that on farms cash was often in short supply; people tried to make or grow what they used and save money for necessary "bought" items. Also,
this skill was revived somewhat during the Civil War, when Southern girls tried to make-do without purchased "Yankee" cloth. (While there is a disagreemtn
as to how many women actually started weaving during the Civil War, there is evidence that some DID learn to weave during this time.)
This thick homespun fabric was used both for clothing and coverlets.
Making fabric was a time-consuming task. The sheep's wool had to be washed and carded, or the flax (linen) stalks rotted, beaten and prepared for spinning.
This was a time-consuming process, requiring a great deal of specialized knowledge.
After being spun, the thread might be dyed. Then the thread was woven. This again required special skills to "dress" the loom (planning the pattern, putting on
the warp threads and getting ready to weave) and actually weave the cloth. For more about spinning and weaving, click here for the Weaving Page.
After being woven, wool fabric might be "fulled" to shrink it and make it thicker. Other fabrics might be dyed using natural or purchased dyes.
Sometimes, rather than weaving, the housewife might use her homespun thread to knit into socks and mittens. Many young girls learned to knit, as knitting
socks took a great deal of time and extra hands were appreciated.
CLEANING
General cleaning involved sweeping, dusting, washing dishes and mopping floors, just like we do today. Cast iron stoves (if any) and andirons in fireplaces
had to be polished with blacking to keep them from rusting. Brass trim, and silver and copper utensils had to be polished. Lamp chimneys had to be cleaned
every day. Making feather beds was a particular chore, as the feather mattresses had to be carefully smoothed down. Rugs were occasionally taken off the
floors, hung up outside, and beaten with sticks to get the dirt out.