A Midwife's Tale Part One

There is very little evidence in relevance to women's roles in the early 19th century. Much of what we "know" is based merely on assumption or some well educated guesses. This is due to many different circumstances. A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, is one of the very few remaining articles that may provide us with some insight as to what a woman's role truly was during that era.
Perhaps, the main reason that we do not have an ample amount of evidence left for us to discover today that will describe a woman's role is because it never really existed to begin with. Very few woman found themselves educated and even fewer actually made written accounts that still survive today. Martha Ballard was a midwife and her diary is one of very few accounts that still survive today that can provide us with some insight into how people lived in the 19th century.
Another reason that we have so little evidence remaining of women's roles during that time is that the women were not considered to be of the same importance as men. They were either stay at home moms, midwives, or working in textile production. The big jobs belonged to the men. All of the judges, reverends, and the majority of doctors were all men. Very few things were recorded during the early parts of the 19th century and those that were generally fell into a religious, medical, or lawful category and the women did not technically play very large roles in these fields.
Many people before Ulrich has read Martha's diary and dismissed it as just a bunch of ramblings. They found it to be of very little use. By taking the time to scour through and assess the smaller pieces of the diary Ulrich was able to determine many things about the average daily life of a woman in the 19th century. He was able to make many discoveries and even prove a few historians and their educated guesses wrong.
Women played a much more important role in the early 19th century than many people commonly believe. For instance Martha herself as only a midwife often treated many of the common and sometimes uncommon illnesses in the areas surrounding her home. She not only delivered babies but administered medicine to the sick and occasionally played the role of mortician as well. She often took on the duties known to only doctors today and only on a rare occasion actually consulted with a physician. Many sick people found relief through Martha Ballard, a female resident of Maine in the early 19th century.
The 19th century appears to have been a time of transition. Moving out of an age where men controlled every aspect of life and into an age where the role was shared mutually with women. The women helped to assure that the household was running and were able to take on many of the common local duties. Men seemed to be just learning the true value of women.
Not only were women key to making a household run smoothly and useful in medical practices but they were also essential when it came to local trade as well. They were needed to continue making the economy run in an organized fashion. Women were constantly trading with one another for cooking necessities, blankets, clothing, vegetables etc. If one family seemed to be having a particularly hard time making ends meet than the women would go over to that household and take the looming equipment and such with them and provide them with the necessary help.
By the beginning of the 19th century women's roles had increased drastically and Ulrich's research through Martha's diary and few other accounts help us to see this. Women were a necessity for success and no man could have failed to recognize it during such an era. They were needed in almost every aspect. The very medical foundations, economy, and heart of 19th century would have been missing if the women had not taken on the roles that they did and accomplish tasks daily that many still struggle with today. One can only wish that more women had taken it upon themselves to keep an accurate daily record of their activities. So much still remains to be learned.