Women and Authority in Colonial British North America

Women and Authority in Colonial British North America Name Institution Women and Authority in Colonial British North America The mid-18th to late 19th century represents a period of women’s rise in the society to occupy their respective positions as equally capable individuals worthy of the same respect and recognition awarded to their male counterparts. The mainly patriarchal system existing in the community during the British colonial era relegated women to the domestic roles and often subjected them to sexual objectification. The society oppressed women across the social, political, and cultural platforms as the existing systems relied on the obscurity of women and their perceived natural frailties to comply or live within the set standards. The domestication of women, for instance, and their relegation to reproductive purposes limited their participation in the male-dominated social functions. Both the political and cultural wings served to maintain the status quo by protecting and preserving the men’s position as the dominant gender in the society deserving of women’s respect and submission. Capturing the different oppressive regimes existing at the time and the feminine uprising to claim or reclaim their rightful position and recognition in the society are articles by Cecilia Morgan and Willeen Keough. Cecilia Morgan’s piece, Of Slender Frame and Delicate Appearance”: the Placing of Laura Secord in the Narratives of Canadian Loyalist History, take a closer look at the depiction of the role played by women during the American invasion of Canada in 1872. Willeen’s article, The Riddle of Peggy Mountain: Regulation of Irish Women's Sexuality on the Southern Avalon, 1750-1860, highlights the social, cultural, political, and economic factors contributing to or encouraging the proliferation of women oppression in the society. The approach taken by the two authors is slightly different from each other as both strive to reinvent women’s position in society by overcoming the biased depiction and representations in society. The difference between the two articles is that Willeen goes into the detailed description of the social context surrounding the historical event through which the author highlights the injustices and oppression faced by women at the time. The author gives a detailed account of the setting up to the development of the legal system to handle cases of child support CITATION Keo02 \l 1033 (Keough, 2002). Morgan, on the other hand, gives a slight description of the loyalist’s texts and their representation of women’s role during the 1872 American invasion of British-occupied Canada. The two articles provide an excellent platform for evaluating the factors that led to the widespread discrimination of women in their representation both in the society and in the historical texts during the British colonial era in North America. A comparative analysis of the two versions reveal some similarities and differences in the authors’ approach towards addressing the issue of women and authority in colonial society. One of the key similarities arising from the two texts is that both author’s build their arguments from actual events that took place during the colonial rule of the British in Canada. Morgan, for instance, traces back the historical event of Laura Secord’s role in aiding the British regiment during the 1872 war and the subsequent recognition or lack thereof in the Canadian Loyalist History narratives CITATION Mor94 \l 1033 (Morgan, 1994). Keough, on the other hand, recounts th...