What Were Women Used For?

The picture above shows a small section from Harvey Newcomb etiquette guide for women. Here he is telling women how they can be more “useful” by giving them rules on how to act and conduct themselves.  This chapter is useful because we get a front row view of some men’s views on women at the time. Because it was socially acceptable to develope a chapter to teach women how to be useful, some individuals may access women were not seen as great contributions to society at this time period. He reminds women that God has made them useful as he has done for all animals. He opened this chapter of usefulness by comparing women to cows for milk and sheep for wool and question what exactly are women good for.