Life of Immigrant Women in 19th Century America Essay

The joined States of America is one of the most diverse countries in the entire world. It has gained diversity not merely through race, but through religion, ethnic background, and through the ever-dynamic shift of America. Some of the most dramatic and speedy changes occurred in the late ordinal century following the Civil War. As the United States began to industrialize, wave upon wave of immigrants poured into the artlesss borders in depend of religious, political, or, more a good deal than not, economic forfeitdom. To the outside world, the United States began to be seen as our Pledge of Allegiance suggests is a land of the free.America is a free country one Polish immigrant statedyou dont live to be a serf to anyone immunity and prosperity are enjoyed by the people of the United States.1 Despite these immigrant hopes of freedom and prosperity, America was entirely just beginning to leave behind its roots of sla very racial discrimination and prejudice were still in the air. While African-American work force were being given their permission to vote, clean-living women still struggled for that freedom. Immigrants faced dilemmas from rough fundamental white women. Feminists argued that native-born white women deserved the vote more than non-whites and immigrants.2 The struggles of being an immigrant were difficult enough, but to be a woman as substantially during that era was un manage any other barrier to freedom and inequality at the time. The novel cacography Givers by Anzia Yezierska, an immigrant who lived during that era, discusses what life was like for her demographic during her time through the eyes of a Jewish immigrant girl. Immigrant women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century faced a slew of harrowing challenges as they faced a changing America. nonpareil of the biggest challenges that immigrant women had to face was exceedingly poor nutrition conditions. Aside from being wrapped to very tight knit, ethnically unifo rm neighborhoods and communities3, many areas had landlords or landlord-esque figures dictated up to enforce strict living requirements which often limited high quality housing in the immigrantcommunity and female demographic.4 In Bread Givers, Yezeriskas character, Sara, experiences this dilemma.She ascends up in a tenet fit perchance for a single person or possibly even a couple, and yet she lives with her mother, father, and three other sisters. On top of cramped living conditions, they do not appear to live in an area where entrance to cheap, safe food is available all the time.5 Later in the novel, an self-aggrandizing Sara is searching for a place to live with a fashion to herself. She struggles to disclose any place other than single rooms to share with twain to four other women. She often finds herself facing rejection to open rooms. No girls, snapped this one, too. wherefore no girls? I dared ask the skinny tsarina.I want to obtain the hall clean. No cooking, no washing. Less trouble, less dirt, with men.6 When Sara eventually does find a room, it is described as being a room very common to poor immigrants during that time. It was a dark hole on the ground floor. The only windowwas thick with black dust. The bed see-sawedthe mattress just of lumps and the sheets were shreds.7 These living conditions often created complications in the wellness and well-being of these immigrant women, and main course to quality health wish was rare for immigrant women. Saras mother fall ill in the novel and has no access to such care, finally leading to her demise.8 These poor living conditions, however, were not the only conflict immigrant women faced. counterbalance when these women left home for work, conditions only worsened.Job opportunities for the immigrant woman in the United States during that era were remarkably limited. As the patronage market expanded, skilled labor movement became more desired and unskilled labor was left to the immigran ts and women. These types of jobs came with low pay (some as low as $3 per week) long hours, and dangerous workings conditions. Immigrant women were largely confined to low-wage factory jobs, while the job-market for native born white women expanded enormously.9 In Bread Givers, Sara searches desperately and finds a job in a clothing factory, much like the factories who hired immigrant girls in reality, for five dollars a week. She describes the factory as small, congested, smelly, and filled with fumes with just about no source of fresh air flow.10 A similar textile factory, The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, burst out in flames on defect 25, 1911.The factory was located on the top three floors of a ten-story construction in Greenwich Villageof New York City. As the fire spread, the young Jewish and Italian immigrant girls, some as young as 14, began to realize the doors to the stairwells were locked, as per usual in these factors, in order for the owner to prevent theft, unauth orised bathroom breaks, outside distractions to his employees. In the end, approximately 150 immigrant girls died in the fire, and some of the remaining survivors were arrested for forming a Union against these factories.11 These inequalities towards immigrant women were prevalent all everyplace the country, but curiously in New York City, where a large pile of the immigrant community lived due to its proximity to Ellis Island and its high-volume of unskilled factory jobs. There were in any case barriers to immigrant women, however, on a smaller, more individualized scale specific ethnical practices.Women of all cultures, but especially poorer immigrant families, often had high-priority obligations in the home that prevented them from excelling in the world. While many native-born white women were privileged enough to leaven up in school and go to college, get educations, and find skilled-labor careers, immigrant girls often had obligations forcing them to stay at home rather t han seek an education, find a respectable job, and start their own family at a reasonable age. victorious into account the poor living conditions found in immigrant communities, as well as the lack of high wage employment and access to health care, women often had responsibilities to their families before pursuing their own lives. In Bread Givers, the convey of the term bread givers was that Sara and her three sisters were obligated to give their earnings to the family, especially the father.12 Although not all immigrant families had patriarchal father figures who demanded all earnings for egotistic reasons as the father in Yezierskas novel did, the structure of income was very common to find in immigrant households.One of Saras sisters, Bessie, was the most all important(p) bread giver early in the story, and later on a man takes interest in her for a wife. I like a plain home girl that knows how to booster save the dollar, cook a good meal, and help in the shop. I think Bessie is just meet for me.13 This man takes interest her the same way most men would during that time. He sees her as a woman to uphold household responsibilities and help to save money instead of earn it on her own.Most of the daughters, but for Sara, end up marryingmen for the sake of bringing money into the house in order to support their parents.14 Finally, at the end of the story, the father begins to grow old and sick and it becomes the responsibility of the daughters to take him in and take care of him without question or hesitation.15 These were some of the specific cultural barriers that imposed on the individual freedoms of immigrant women in the United States.Anzia Yezierska, through her book Bread Givers, provided a very specific, yet realistic depiction of the challenges presented to immigrant women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century of America. The huge influx of immigrants, especially from southerly and eastern Europe, between 1890 and 1914 created a dras tically new dynamic in the changing United States.16 This new dynamic presented countless challenges to immigrants and women same including poor living conditions, limited job opportunities, and cultural barriers. As our country continues to progress, so will the challenges presented to each individual group, culture, and demographic therefore, it is crucial to determine these past experiences so we may learn to adapt and thrive in those conditions.Works CitedFoner, Eric . Give Me Liberty An American History, seagull 3e. 3rd. 2. New York, NY W W Norton , 2012. 546-713. print.The Power and the People, episode 4 of New York A documentary film Film, Steeplechase Films, 1999, PBS home video.Yezierska, Anzia . Bread Givers, A Novel. New York, NY Persea Books, INC, 2003. print.