1. Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of
an Hour” in 1894.
Women’s lives were very different at
that time!

2. Picture: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/30795/1890s-wedding-party
Most women were married. Divorce
was unusual, and very difficult.

3. Picture: http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-B1
Women stayed home, and took care of the
house and family.

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwalk,_California
There were only a few jobs for single
women. Women could be teachers,

5. http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2013/09/walkabout-kate-mullany-a-troy-story-part-
1/
factory workers,

6. http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
servants,

7. http://aljwhite.com/?p=254
or prostitutes.

8. Working women did not make very
much money.
It was usually impossible for a
woman to support a family by
herself.

9. 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.

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

11. 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