Title: Traditional Roles of Men & Women in Families | Our Everyday Life
Headings: Traditional Roles of Men & Women in Families
Traditional Roles of Men & Women in Families
Colonial Family Units
Traditional Roles of Men in Families
Traditional Female Roles
Changing Roles

Content: Households were usually made up of parents, children, extended relatives and boarders, as well as servants and apprentices who performed household duties or learned career skills. These family groups often lived on farms, but some lived in towns or cities and worked in various skilled trades. Much as it is now, it was typically necessary for more than one person to generate income to support the family unit. Traditional Roles of Men in Families
Religious European settlers brought their beliefs to the New World, and those beliefs helped define the roles of men and women within families. God was the highest authority, and husbands and fathers derived their household authority from God. Men were expected to provide for their families, but they also took an active role in rearing their children. Fathers taught their children to read and write, found apprenticeship programs for them so that they could learn career skills, disciplined their offspring as needed, and led the family in prayers or other religious activities. The father was considered the primary parent. Divorce was permissible under certain circumstances, but the father was normally granted custody rather than the mother. Traditional Female Roles
A woman needed to know how to sew, spin and weave, tend vegetable and medicinal herb gardens, prepare food, and make sure that any servants or apprentices were properly trained and satisfactorily met their obligations within the household.