Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour” in 1894.

Women’s lives were very different at that time!

Picture: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/30795/1890s-wedding-party

Most women were married. Divorce was unusual, and very difficult.

Picture: http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-B1

Women stayed home, and took care of the house and family.

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There were only a few jobs for single women. Women could be teachers,

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factory workers,

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servants,

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or prostitutes.

Working women did not make very much money.

It was usually impossible for a woman to support a family by

herself.

Picture: http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1895-19830

Rich women, like Kate Chopin and the main character in “The Story of an Hour,” had servants to do all the work. They wore

beautiful clothes and did very little. However, they had to obey their husbands.

Women stayed with their husbands whether they were happy or not.

Picture: http://www.barnhardt.biz/the-one-about/the-one-about-womens-suffrage/

Women could not vote. Some women were working to change the law so that they could vote. But American women finally got

the vote much later, in 1920