Women In New France

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Pages: 6

The European settlers that came to New France were first comprised of men. They were the majority of the European settler population and still were for a while even when the women started arriving. Women from different walks of life migrated to New France. There were women that were already married and had families to raise. They tended to stay at home and did work around their households since it was the men who were the financial supporters. Some of the women were single or widowed and had the idea of marrying a man in New France. Other women came as indentured servants and so they “had to delay marriage”1 Others felt that they were called by God to bring the First Nations into Christianity. Another group of women that were already living …show more content…
An Indian woman lived a more liberating life and “[was] very free before marriage”2. The French were Roman Catholic and so the story of Adam and Eve where Eve, a woman, was the first to let sin into this world is a factor that lead to the discipline of women by men and also it is the Christian faith that tells women to be submissive to their husbands. Men ran the household and the women did as she was told because men were viewed as superior. The First Nations do not have the Christian faith and so the story of Adam and Eve is not relevant to them and, in turn, the importance of women submitting to their husbands is not prominent in Aboriginal culture. Women were not viewed as the original sinners in First Nations communities therefore they were much more equal to men than European women were to …show more content…
This categorization of classes was adopted in New France. For the European women, they did not have very many rights, making it hard for them to climb the social ladder on their own since their “social position was determined first by that of [their] father, and subsequently by [their] husband.”10 For Aboriginal women, there was a sense of strong community ties and not very much care for social divisions since the tribe helped each other and there was no sign of one being richer than the other. This social hierarchy affected the life of a New France woman because it gave her