Conclusion

Conclusion

     Through the creation of this blog, we were able to gain insight into the severity of marriage on women's lives and the social standards they were expected to follow. In today's world, marriage is still seen as something to uphold, but not to the extent that it was pushed in 1700's America. It also became clear that men were not just manipulating women to see marriage as an important goal, but that women themselves believed and enforced this view.

      The Ladies Magazine, while it seems to simply teach women the proper etiquette to find a husband and how to behave after marriage, is much more complex. By publishing conflicting ideas of where a woman's place stood in marriage, whether in the domestic sphere or participating in the nation's economy, and whether obedience and submissiveness were necessary to be an upstanding wife, reflect the editors' own complicated views on this subject. While it can be easy to generalize women's rights in marriage as overall oppressive, it is important to take in multiple people's opinions on the topic. By analyzing this publication it is clear that men and women had, at times, surprising opinions and did not let society stifle their voice, complicating the issue. 

- Emily Fournier