1. Women’s History From Republican Motherhood to Cult of Domesticity.

2. Status of Colonial Women
ENGLISH COMMON LAW (Pg 136)
Coverture – British law that women’s rights were merged with that of her husband (‘covered’) Only legal right was who to marry
“Dower rights” women get 1/3 or husbands property upon his death
Without husband’s consent she could not:
Sign legal documents, obtain an education, keep wages, or even have liability for her actions
Puritans did have some laws protecting women from physical abuse and allowed for divorce
“the movement for a married women’s property act, then became a dress rehearsal for women’s suffrage.”

3. Women in the Revolution
Helpers in Revolution
Boycotts
Women are principle consumers for household
“Spinning Bees” create homespun as symbol of patriotism
Wartime help
Traditional role as “Deputy husbands” while husband at war
Support roles in armed forces
woodcut: of a patriot women

4. Women in the Revolution
Dominant idea of womanhood that emerges –
“Republican Motherhood”: women’s function in society is to raise patriotic republican sons
Columbia and Washington,
unknown artist, ( ).

5. Women in the Revolution
Abigail Adams
Hope after the Revolution…
“Remember the Ladies”
“If you complain of neglect of Education in sons, What shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it. With regard to the Education of my own children, I find myself soon out of my depth, and destitute and deficient in every part of Education.”
Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband, John Adams, August 14, 1776
Portrait of Abigail Adams after a painting by Benjamin Blythe

6. Women in the Revolution
Legal status post-Revolution
Positives:
Voting - NJ only state to allow unmarried women to vote (not dependent)
Divorce laws loosened - especially PA & New England
Woodcut of Women Casting Votes in New Jersey Image:  © Bettmann/CORBIS Date Created:  ca Location Information:  New Jersey, USA

7. Antebellum Women

8. Cult of Domesticity Cult of Domesticity:
Women and men naturally suited to separate spheres
home: Private Sphere
Work: Public Sphere
Creates ideas about female vs male “nature”
Women naturally more gentle, emotional, pure, pious, submissive
Men more aggressive, rational
“No time for Politics”
The Gibson Girl began appearing in the 1890s and was the personification of the feminine ideal of beauty portrayed by the satirical pen-and-ink illustrations of illustrator Charles Dana Gibson

9. Cult of True Womanhood Article
3: Things You Learned
2: Things You already Knew
1: OMG I can’t believe that!

10. Cult of Domesticity Why?
Industrial revolution separate men & women’s work, disrupt families
It becomes women’s job to keep family “pure” and perfect
Exceptions – working class women and slaves
Strike by Boris Mihajlovic Kustodiev Image:  © The Gallery Collection/Corbis Creator Name:  Boris Mihajlovic Kustodiev Date Created:  

11. Cult of Domesticity Consequences: Positive:
Greater access to education for women
Founding of women’s schools
Ex. Mount Holyoke, Harford Female Seminary
Mt. Holyoke College Postcard Image:  © Lake County Museum/CORBIS Date Created:  ca. 1900

12. Cult of Domesticity Consequences: Positive:
Publications – Catherine Beecher’s Treatise on Domestic Economy
Women’s magazines – Godey’s Ladies Book
"Godey's Fashions for January 1868" Catalog Illustration with Bridal Dresses from Godey's Lady's Book Image:  © Cynthia Hart Designer/CORBIS Photographer:  Cynthia Hart Date Photographed:  2001 Date Created:  1868

13. Cult of Domesticity Consequences: Positive:
Work – Teaching – women enter workforce in “common schools”
“Mill Girls” – textile mills
Exterior of Boott Cotton Mill Original caption: Exterior view of the Boott Cotton Mills at Lowell, Massachusetts. Undated engraving.Image:  © Bettmann/CORBIS Location Information:  Lowell, Masschusetts

14. Cult of Domesticity Consequences: Negative:
Limited access to professions (law, medicine) as against women’s delicate “nature”
Segregation of public life
Ex. 4th of July celebrations
People Watching Fireworks from Lahaina Harbor Image:  © Jon Hicks/Corbis Photographer:  Jon Hicks Date Photographed:  July 5, 2007 Location Information:  Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, USA

15. Antebellum Women & Reform
Reform movements as springboard for women’s rights
Women move from being moral forces in homes to moral forces in society
Teaches women public speaking, leadership, organizing, fundraising
Utopians (ex. Ann Lee)
Grimke Sisters, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Temperance (pg 147), Abolition, Suffrage, Mentally Insane
Harriet Beecher Stowe The American author Harriet Beecher Stowe ( ). She became famous for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and her most popular books deal with New England life.Image:  © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS Photographer:  Notman Date Photographed:  ca Location Information:  United States

16. Women’s rights Movement
REVOLUTIONARY REHOTRIC!
Play off the D.of.I… “we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men & WOMEN are created equal.”
Emerges out of abolitionism & growing level of female education
Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott
1848 Seneca Falls Convention
Declaration of Sentiments
Suffrage
Property rights
Divorce and child custody
Eizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Original caption: Susan B. Anthony ( ) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton ( ), founders of The National Woman Suffrage Association, are shown seated together at small table. Sarony photograph circa 1881.Image:  © Bettmann/CORBIS Photographer:  Napoleon Sarony Date Photographed:  ca. 1881

17. Women & Reform Reform movements as springboard for women’s rights
But not in the South
These same beliefs not extended in South towards Southern women or slaves
Butterfly McQueen and Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind Original caption: Butterfly McQueen is shown here as "Prissy" in David Selznick's production of Gone With The Winds, an MGM 1939 movie. At left is Vivien Leigh, as Scarlett O'Hara.Image:  © Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS Date Photographed:  1939

18. Civil War & Women’s Rights
Changing expectations during wartime:
North
Organizations like Sanitary Commission, Red Cross
Women’s movement put on hold after war – it was African American men’s turn
Ex. 15th Amendment
Headquarters of the USSC in 1864 (Brady) ;

19. Civil War & Women’s Rights
Changing expectations after the war:
Freed slaves
Women often wanted “cult of domesticity” but whites resisted loss of black women’s labor
Freed Slave and Wife A freed slave and his wife living in a run-down plantation house in Greene County, Georgia. July 1937.Image:  © CORBIS Photographer:  Dorothea Lange Date Photographed:  July 1937

20. Progressive Era Women Jane Addams Hull House Carry Nation WCTU
Dorothea Dix
Ida B Wells-Barnett
Hull House
WCTU
Mentally ill
Lynching
Child Labor
Labor Unions (LGWU)