Nagging Wife Revisited by Jan noel
My thoughts:
The article talks about the social roles of women in New France.
The women’s roles were dependent on the status and marital ties that she had. Middle class and lower class women would not participate in the fur trades like the upper class women, they would be put in charge of domestic household duties and would take over the more masculine tasks when the husbands left for the fur trade. Lower and middle class women would also educate the children and take over some military roles. Indigenous women were considered equal to men until the Europeans arrived and changed the way of thinking. In European ways the women would obtain the social patterns of who they were marrying and although this stayed the same in New France the role of women was opening up to new opportunities and diversity despite the male dominance. The role of a husband in a women’s life was to maintain control over his wife and children and was to be the main “bread winner”. Women however did have the privilege of taking over the males role when he was away, this was something many women enjoyed doing. Women were also expected to bear many children but because this could be so dangerous for both mother and child not many mothers would become attached to their children they didn’t see the point in becoming attached to something that was so fragile and could easily die. Therefore it was considered a duty to give birth multiple times over a lifetime. The influence of New France was created by french settlers where the male was the breadwinner and the female was the homemaker unless the male was away then the female would play both roles.
A Fille Du Roi’s by Arienne. B. Leduc
In this letter it talks of a girl who was an orphan in France and given a second chance at a life in New France that she wouldn’t have if she stayed in France. In order to get married or become a nun you had to have a dowry but by her being an orphan she didn’t have one, if she stayed in France she would live in poverty so she chose to move to New France because she was promised a dowry that would allow her to marry there. It took her 9 weeks to get to New France from France and when she got there she was married almost immediately because the men who had immigrated were told they had to marry within 15 days of being there or they would not be allowed to trade, hunt, or fish and the privileges of the church and community would be withheld from them. All immigrants were young and able bodied people because they would be moving to harsh conditions and would become the ancestors of many French-Canadians.
I find It Fascinating what women would do in this era, I don’t honestly think you would hear of a girl traveling for 9 weeks to marry a complete stranger and start a life in a country that not only does she not know anything about but is a harsh environment to live in.