Republican motherhood
The concept of "
republican motherhood" arose during and after the
American Revolution in the
13 colonies (later, the
United States of America). As the principles of
republicanism rose in importance to the rebelling colonists, American society gradually came to promote the idea that women needed to clearly understand and embrace these values, so that they could be transmitted to their children at a young age and help secure their central position in the minds and hearts of Americans. Republican motherhood developed between
1760 and
1800 but extended well into the 19th century. It never in fact vanished. Important advocates included
Abigail Adams and
Judith Sargent Murray, whom Kerber (1997 p 120) called "the most vigorous single voiceâ€"of the ideology I have called republican motherhood."
The idea of republican motherhood, undeniably resulted in increased educational opportunities for American women, as typified by
Mary Lyon and the founding in 1837 of
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary which would later become
Mount Holyoke College. It produced as well initiative and independence that Kerber says was one side of an inherently paradoxical ideology of republican motherhood that legitimized political sophistication and activity. [Kerber 1997 p. 145] The
abolitionist movement, which blossomed in the 1830s and 1840s, found many of its strongest and most dedicated voices in educated Northern women. The
Seneca Falls Convention of
1848, which began the women's rights movement in the United States, also likely owes some of its origin to the emphasis on republican motherhood of 50 years before.
The term "republican motherhood" does not explicitly appear in the 18th and 19th Centuries. It is first used as a description in
1980 by
historian Linda Kerber in her book
Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Kerber uses the phrase to refer to the emerging role defined for women in the late
1700s by writers such as
Mary Wollstonecraft and
Judith Sargent Murray. Historian Jan Lewis subsequently expanded the concept in her article "The Republican Wife: Virtue and Seduction in the Early Republic," published in the
William and Mary Quarterly (1987).
Historians are divided on the question of whether republican motherhood implied that women were on a path towards political equality at the founding of the United States, or whether it signified a new but subservient role for women in the new republic. The idea of a mother as a key force in the preservation and advancement of democracy can be seen as elevating women to status as politically vital citizens, but it can equally be seen as a reinforcement of traditional women's roles (merely focusing the education taking place in the home somewhat away from religious inculcation and towards democratic ideals).
* Jeanne Boydston.
Home and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic 1994
* Anne M Boylan.
The Origins of Women's Activism: New York and Boston, 1797-1840 (2002)
* Linda K Kerber.
Intellectual History of Women: Essays by Linda K. Kerber 1997
* Linda K Kerber.
Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (1997)
* S J Kleinberg.
Women in the United States, 1830-1945 (1999)
* Mary Beth Norton.
Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800 (1996)
