Thursday, September 29, 2011

Republican Motherhood

1. What role did the Revolutionary War play in the transformation of housewifery to Republican Motherhood?
Women were expected to work at home, and obly at home. If a woman were to leave her home to go out in public and be social, it was known that she was neglecting her duties as a housewife. This is clearly demonstrated, written "Our chief aim throughout these pages is to prove that her domestic duties had a paramount claim over everything else upon her attention" (Document A). Women's education was no longer just like men's education in the sense that women learned things such as manners, writing, English, and how to run a household (Document B).
2. What were the consequences of Republican Motherhood on women?
Women were required to stay at home everyday and shape the family.  They learned new sets of values in order to make a household and family run smoothly and efficiently (Document B). Women wished to grow in society, but were confined to the household, forever trapped in their gender role (Document D).
3. What is the significance of the ideology of Republican Motherhood as a stage in the process of women's socialization?
Women were the forming factor of the typical American family. Women believed themselves to be very strong and did everything they could to earn respect and honor for their sex (Document C). Women had the power to change the world for the better, and they knew so. Although they had as much potential as men, they chose not to challenge their roles because if they did, they knew that turmoil would befall society (Document D).


1. Describe the setting.
Mary Gibson Tilghman and her sons seem to be sitting on a luxurious couch, and their clothing looks to be quite expensive. They may have been in a portrait studio.
2. Who serves at the center of the portrait and why? How does the woman look? How is she "republican" rather than aritocratic?
Mary is the central focus of the painting because she is the woman of the family and appears to be holding the family together. She looks very serene and calm, as if her job as a mother came naturally to her. She looks very calm, as if she accepts her role as a woman and doesn't want a female uprising, which she would if she were an aristocrat.
3. What values do her sons exhibit?
Her sons exhibit almost barbarity, as we see the one on the left reaching or stuggling out of Mary's grasp and the one on the right shows off a dead bird. The one on the right is also brighter than the one on Mary's lap. Perhaps one of the sons represents order, and the other chaos.
4. Is there a significance to the position of Mrs. Tilghman's arm?
If the reader assumes that the son of the left represents disorder whilst the son on the right represents order, Mary's arm would be the dividing line between the two. Mary stands for all Republican women, and her arm in this position is significant because it implies that without women, life for the early Americans may have been offbalance, eventually ending in destruction.

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