The Role of Republican Motherhood The cult of domesticity

Republican Motherhood a Revolutionary View  It altered the way women had always lived out their lives  It justified women’s absorption and participation in the civic culture  It paved the way for the emergence of the public woman  Their influence on their sons changed American Politics

Women's role in society was altered by the American Revolution. Women who ran households in the absence of men became more assertive. Abigail Adams, wife of John, became an early advocate of women's rights when she prompted her husband to "Remember the Ladies" when drawing up a new government.

 Gate at Mt. Holyoke College, Massachusetts, founded by Mary Lyon. Lyon, Zilpah Grant, Judith Sargent Murray, and others educated in the years following the Revolution, opened the gates to further education for women.

How did it start?  Pre-Revolutionary ministers, particularly in Puritan Massachusetts, preached the moral superiority of men. Enlightened thinkers rejected this and knew that a republic could only succeed if its citizens were virtuous and educated.  And who was responsible for the children’s education?

American Mothers! The first American female academies were founded in the 1790s. This idea of an educated woman became known as "republican motherhood." The American Revolution ignited these changes. Education and respect would lead to the emergence of a powerful, outspoken middle class of women. By the mid nineteenth century, the Seneca Falls Declaration on the rights of women slightly alters Thomas Jefferson's words by saying: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal..."

Getting an education at the turn of the 19th century was not easy. At age 4 Mary Lyon walked a mile to school. At 7, she boarded away from home to attend another school. But her determination paid off; she founded Mt. Holyoke College, the nation's oldest continuing liberal arts institution for women.

In 1789, Massachusetts became the first state to require local governments to educate children — girls as well as boys!

Massachesetts is 1 st ! In 1789, Massachusetts became the first state to require local governments to educate children — girls as well as boys!