4. Women Became More Educated In Various Fields
In the 1800’s, married women had to bear the burden of raising all of their kids alone, clean the house, go grocery shopping, farm their land, and satisfy their husbands’ wants and desires. With all of these duties, there was almost never any time left for indulging in their own interests until their children were grown up. Life in these women’s communes was drastically different, and for many, it was a chance from them to finally receive an education.
Women living at the commune had set work hours, and they shared the household responsibilities. There were also classrooms full of kids, so one women did not have to raise her kids alone, either. This made it faster and easier to get their chores done, instead of being a housewife that was on-call 24/7. They actually began to have the luxury of free time. Many women learned to read and write for the first time in their lives. Others learned trades that were usually reserved for men, like blacksmithing and shoemaking. In modern times, a lot of these women’s communes that are still around encourage learning carpentry and other construction skills that are typically reserved for men.
Once these women learned how to read, they became obsessed with it. Since most of their basic needs were taken care of, they spent their pocket money buying books, which was seen as a luxury for many housewives at that time. The book collection of the Belton Women’s Commonwealth became so big, and the interests of all the women in the group covered such a wide variety of subjects, both men and women in the town began to come to the Commonwealth’s personal library to visit and borrow books. It dawned on the ladies that they should open a real library, so they did. It was the first public library of Belton, Texas, and it still stands there to this day.