16th Century American Women

Since the 16th century, many drastic changes in history have occurred, especially statuses of women throughout the world. From the Aztec Empire to modern day, women have changed in clothing, lifestyles and occupations. In modern day, they now have more opportunities, equality and rights that they could express and be proud of. However, it was not easy for them to be where they are today. Women mainly sacrificed their time and lost their lives in order to fight for what they wanted. For many years, men have been dominant over women as they had all the rights and privileges that women were not given. Instead, they were given traditional roles of a wife who would take care of the house and the children. After struggling for many years, women have …show more content…
However, throughout the Andes, sources suggested that a even though under the Inca rule, the males were the rulers, yet the power was often brought down to their sisters or daughters of headmen (Smith et al. 536). This gives the idea that both sexes were involved in agricultural activities and were in clans. In an empire in New Spain and Peru, roughly around the mid-1500s, native-Americans faced many challenges, such as changes in global economy and the silver boom. During the challenges of religious conversion, women carried on with their lives, taught their children social issues and to push for social …show more content…
They tended to work domesticated tasks that a typical housewife would do, such as taking care of children, preparing food and run the household (Smith et al. 594). On the other hand, men did the hard labor work of hunting, herding, trading and welfare. When they returned, the wives would support their husband by sorting everything they have done to make their jobs easier. However, not all women in West Central Africa were limited to working in the fields and managing crops. Women managed to work in mining crews and were most likely assigned to work in gold mines of the Spanish Caribbean (Smith et al. 595). Although they had the skills to mine and work, evidence claims that they were enslaved and were later demanded to work in other places, such as Mexico and Brazil (Smith et al. 595). Women, along with children, the disabled and elderly were labeled as a sub-fraction of a unit called peca, or “piece”, when they were given to Portuguese merchants (Smith et al. 595). Although women were portrayed to be weak beings that were meant to stay in the house, there were some female rulers in West Central Africa. From the 1620s – 1660s, Queen Nzinga adopted the style of kings and supplied slaves to Portuguese, who had been gathering slaves (Smith et al. 599). Queen Nzinga built her own slave and trading state and initially helped the Portuguese trade in Africa become entirely comprised of slaves. Queen