Suffer Not a Woman to Speak, R

In essence, women had a rocky start to their eventual gain of political voice, economic rights, and equality. Christianity both aided and hindered women from gaining equality and rights. The Calvanists theory supported women’s subjugation by the story of Adam and Eve, where Eve, fell susceptible to evil desire. However, the Quakers were very lenient towards the role of women as preachers and missionaries and were even encouraged to speak their voice on issues both religious and ethical. Protestants also aided women on their quest of gaining equivalence. Education was highly sought after in the Protestant sect which meant for boys and girls to be taught how to read and right. Literacy, therefore, in both men and women, sky rocketed.
The colonial hysteria of withcraft was also a contribution to the oppression of women. Although there were some men that were tried as witches, women were mostly the ones imprisoned and killed based on mere accusations. Sanity was questionable in this colonial era and illogical assumptions of witchery were made leaving many women either killed or incarcerated.
Legally, women were similar to slaves in that they were valued as property of their husband. There were at first no laws preventing domestic violence against women which led to numerous cases of the act, for it was not enforced or even socially indecent. In comparison to married women, single women did have more protection as they had no husband to do the protecting for them; the state granted single women legal rights. Because women were viewed as mere property, they did not control their own wages and could not buy or sell without the consent of their master. The Common Law that was instituted in the American colonies did leave women better off than their counterparts in Britain. Married women could share the home and bed, they were supported by their husband, and were protected from any abuse by their husbands. Although these rights were granted to women, they were basically never existent. Women could not sue in court which meant that they could never address any offenses of the said laws leaving them subject to the abuse that those very laws were put in place to protect.

For every step women took forward, they in reality, never got anywhere in their search for equality until after the Revolution.