Morals, Manners And The Republican Mother Summary

Words: 653
Pages: 3

Sebastian Bustamante
Mr. Fulton
American History
03 March 2018
Article Review

In the journal article “Morals, Manners, and the Republican Mother” by Rosemarie Zagarri, American Quarterly I have found that the author speaks on how women were often treated less than men and were not considered as equals and were thought to have had less of an impact on politics when they should have been regarded just as important to the progression of the country as well as the significance in political role they had contributed in the 18th century. In Zagarri's Journal she talks about the intellectual ideas and concept of Republican Motherhood. Using Linda Kerber's perspective and ideas on women's issues as a starting point, she goes on to review the start
…show more content…
By doing this, Zagarri goes into more detail into Kerber's original thesis, in which Republican Motherhood was created as a whole, and as gender specific because of the end result of the revolutionary era. She supports this by explaining how in the 4 stage theory women were essential for understanding the relationships between virtues and commerce as well as introducing how women helped men shape their “manners” in life which was their actions, considering women did not have many rights and were thought as “slaves to the men” they were thought to be just of assistants for them. In the 17th and 18th century During the colonial periods, an independent woman with any type of high political responsibility was rare to find. A woman's role was based on the opportunities available by her husband due to this, woman living in this era had very limited jobs and opportunities outside of home. Cleaning, cooking, and taking care of her children were for the most part an everyday task for them limiting what they would want to accomplish otherwise.The Idea of Republican Motherhood also showed a time in American history when a woman's role changed from just ordinary day to day tasks to passing forward the values of manners and morality as well as civic actions, because of this women were expressing