Term Paper on "Republican Motherhood and Women's Role in Moral"

Term Paper 15 pages (4350 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Republican Motherhood and Women's Role In Moral Reform Movements

In this paper I will argue that the women who helped change the world in the early to mid-19th Century were extraordinary and are under-appreciated by those who write and report the history of the United States. The theme of this paper will posit that 19th Century women ably, adroitly used their skills, emotions, energy, passion and experiences to truly form a more moral union. The women who are highlighted in this paper struggled and were often stifled, but they learned how to launch and sustain reform movements; they did it not through formal training in most cases, but through the manifold processes of their maturation as daughters, sisters, wives - and most of all, as mothers.

There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before."

Addressing the Phrase "Republican Motherhood": A scholarly article titled, "Rethinking Republican Motherhood..." By Margaret a. Nash sets the tone and the stage for the discussion that is germane to this research. Nash states that the original phrase "republican motherhood" was coined by writer Linda Kerber; and by doing so "...[Kerber] altered the historiography of female education." The leaders of this brand new democratic nation - following the Revolution - wanted to offer more educational opportunities to females, Kerber explained. And Nash argues that Kerber - greatly influenced by a Benjamin Rush essay - put forth a theory that the reason the nation's leaders wanted women to be educated was not to necessarily give women equal chances for social advancement, but rather it was so they could "...raise good republican sons."

That particular somewhat cynical view of republican motherhood is overstated, according to Nash, and it has subsequently been amended with other factors that led to women being offered better opportunities to participate in formal education. For one, there were progressive beliefs about the intellectual abilities of women - fostered during and through the Enlightenment - that opened some men's eyes, Nash asserts. Further, visionary men in post-revolutionary America could see the "absolute value of knowledge" (Nash 171); and also, there were pragmatic needs in the emerging new society for skills, literacy, and knowledge, and women were given a chance to gain those skills and competencies simply due to the great need for the nation to evolve intelligently and thoroughly.

There was an interest in promoting education that extended beyond the above-mentioned reasons, according to author Sara Delamont; she argues that the feminist "pioneers" of the early 19th Century were indeed well served by their emerging political and social beliefs about "class and family." But left out of that enlightening female period of change was the "working-class girl and the less able," who were restricted by the existing domestic system. And hence, there was a growing sense of urgency for public education both in the UK and in America, not just because the male powers controlling government wanted to see bright, eager women carrying their books to school. But because, Delamont asserts on page 165, the political establishment was fearful of what could happen if indeed citizens - including women - were ignorant of history and of political ideology entirely.

To wit, Delamont asserts that while concern over the "ignorance of the masses" in some political quarters was purely "benevolent," among other political leaders - along with the upper and middle classes - there was great fear brought on by the vision of "cities seething with unchristian, illiterate proletarians." Those very proletarians just might be swayed "to revolution as the French peasants had been," Delamont continues, and hence education was seen as a way of "acculturating the negro and the immigrant..." Working class women, who did not of course have the right to vote, nonetheless were believed to be worthy of an education, Delamont explains, simply because "...their homes would be civilized by a basic education." And that education would "prevent rebellion" among the slaves plus, have the added impact of enabling the "whites" to "control and direct the slave labor" (Delamont 165). How an education would help a woman in post-Revolutionary America to control slaves is not pointed out, but Delamont notes that in Britain "female illiteracy was linked to crime," and by educating women in America that threat would be wiped out before it had a chance to materialize.

Both boys and girls should then receiving elementary educations, the ruling male politicians believed, and the "only concession to sex was sewing for the girls." In terms of secondary and higher education, there was also a battle going on early in the 19th Century as to which courses would be most beneficial for male students (Science? Math? History? Latin or Greek?); the push for women's education, "and the arguments about its content, were but a small part of the wider shifts," Delamont explains on page 168. Nevertheless, for the various reasons mentioned in this portion of the paper, women began to realize opportunities for learning that hadn't been available earlier.

Meanwhile, returning to the essay by Nash, she makes a highly cogent point about republican motherhood on page 172 of her essay; she paraphrases Kerber in saying that post-revolutionary women "...adopted republican motherhood as an ideology" that allowed them to carve out "a political niche for themselves." Nash goes on to explain that according to Kerber's narrative, a "virtuous citizenry" was the best defense against failure for the new nation, and those needed virtues were to be found in churches, schools, and of course, in families. And in the context of families, since the mother's role was far and away the most "crucial" the concept of "motherhood" came to assume nearly as much importance as "a fourth branch of government."

And so an understanding emerges through the literature that the concept of "republican motherhood" was both the seed for 19th Century women awakening as political and moral movements and the soil in which those movements would take hold. If indeed the sources that Nash alludes to and cites are correct, male political leaders began to realize that the home was pivotal to the ultimate success or failure of the republic. "Political virtue became domesticated," Nash goes on, "and the republican mother became the 'custodian of civic morality'."

After all, from a practical standpoint, it was high time women were dealt a fair hand in the political systems and strategies of the day; indeed, women had played a substantial role in the success of the American Revolution. Nash lists the significant contributions that women made during the Revolutionary War: a) women en masse boycotted imported goods, which was key to the resistance when unfair British taxes were levied; b) women produced quality home-made items to replace those imported items that were being boycotted; c) women "fed and clothed" the armies that won the war; d) women ran the businesses and farms - and raised the kids with high moral standards - while their husbands were away fighting the battles against the British.

It is pertinent and appropriate to introduce historical references from author Kerber at this point in the paper, in particular her comments in the Introduction to the hitherto mentioned book in which she notes, "...For many women the Revolution had been a strongly politicizing experience." but, Kerber goes on, the new nation - now having freshly broken away from the old laws and politics of the British Empire - "made little room for [women] as political beings." Kerber goes so far as to say on page 11-12 that the "language" identified with Republican Motherhood actually "provided the justification of women's political behavior." It bridged "the gap between idiocy and the polis," writes Kerber, not one to pull punches or couch her feelings in cliches and platitudes.

Again, when Kerber speaks of women becoming political at this point, right after the Revolution, she's speaking of women playing out their political hand "in the home" (Kerber 12). In later chapters of her book, Kerber reflects back on what the Revolution meant to women, and indeed as Abigail Adams said to her husband John, "to be an adept in the art of Government is a prerogative to which your Sex lay almost exclusive claim." Although much of Kerber's book deals with the plight of and the challenge to women in the post-Revolutionary period, she does paint a picture of how women in the late 18th Century used skills honed at home to later go out and reform where changes were needed. There was, after the Revolution, an emphasis on the "efficient management of domestic responsibilities," Kerber writes on page 253. The notion that "domestic work is a woman's business, has a curiously modern ring," Kerber continues.

Kerber profiles numerous women, most in the post-Revolution period, who struggled with domestic matters and an attempt… READ MORE

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