Download or read book Mothers and Daughters in Nineteenth Century America written by Nancy M. Theriot and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The feminine script of early nineteenth century centered on women's role as patient, long-suffering mothers. By mid-century, however, their daughters faced a world very different in social and economic options and in the physical experiences surrounding their bodies. In this groundbreaking study, Nancy Theriot turns to social and medical history, developmental psychology, and feminist theory to explain the fundamental shift in women's concepts of femininity and gender identity during the course of the century—from an ideal suffering womanhood to emphasis on female control of physical self. Theriot's first chapter proposes a methodological shift that expands the interdisciplinary horizons of women's history. She argues that social psychological theories, recent work in literary criticism, and new philosophical work on subjectivities can provide helpful lenses for viewing mothers and children and for connecting socioeconomic change and ideological change. She recommends that women's historians take bolder steps to historicize the female body by making use of the theoretical insights of feminist philosophers, literary critics, and anthropologists. Within this methodological perspective, Theriot reads medical texts and woman- authored advice literature and autobiographies. She relates the early nineteenth-century notion of "true womanhood" to the socioeconomic and somatic realities of middle-class women's lives, particularly to their experience of the new male obstetrics. The generation of women born early in the century, in a close mother/daughter world, taught their daughters the feminine script by word and action. Their daughters, however, the first generation to benefit greatly from professional medicine, had less reason than their mothers to associate womanhood with pain and suffering. The new concept of femininity they created incorporated maternal teaching but altered it to make meaningful their own very different experience. This provocative study applies interdisciplinary methodology to new and long-standing questions in women's history and invites women's historians to explore alternative explanatory frameworks.

Download or read book The Biosocial Construction of Femininity written by Nancy Theriot and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1988-05-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did 19th-century women determine what behaviors and attitudes constituted femininity, and how did one generation pass on to another those social attitudes and adaptations deemed proper and necessary for womankind? Theriot argues convincingly that women themselves were the agents in the formation of attitudes about gender. . . . This book would be difficult for readers not familiar with some aspects of women's studies, but is an important and perceptive examination of the effect of sexual ideology. Choice This study focuses on feminine ideology and middle-class women's reproductive experience in nineteenth-century America. Using nineteenth-century popular literature written by women, medical literature, and autobiographies, this fascinating work offers a theoretical framework for viewing gender as a historical process and women as agents in gender formation. It discusses the relationship between sexual ideology and women's material lives, and their role in the creation and evolution of femininity, explaining what the author perceives as the generational interconnection of body experience, sexual ideology, and feminine consciousness. By analyzing the link between the external and internal dimensions of women's world through the application of phenomenological and social psychological methodology to historical materials, Theriot suggests a framework for understanding the relationship of female body and feminine ideology and for viewing the mother/daughter dyad as central in women's personal and collective history.

Download or read book Anchor of My Life written by Linda W. Rosenzweig and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1994-10 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The decades between 1880 and 1920 could represent a watershed in the history of the mother-daughter relationship--a subject ripe for extensive investigation. This study investigates conflict and harmony between the generations before, during, and after this period, drawing on a variety of sources: letters, diaries, autobiographies, prescriptive advice or "self-help" literature, and fiction. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Writing Mothers and Daughters written by Adalgisa Giorgio and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first systematic study of mother-daughter relationships as represented in Western European fiction during the second half of the 20th century provides a comparative study of works from England, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. For each individual body of texts, the authors identify characteristics arising from specific national literary traditions and from internal cultural diversities. The text suggests avenues for future investigation both within and across national boundaries. The featured writers include Steedman, Diski, Winterson, Tennant, de Beauvoir, Leduc, Djura, Wolf, Jelinek, Mitgutsch, Novak, Lavin, O'Brien, O'Faolin, Morante, Sanvitale, Ramondino, Chacel, Rodoreda, and Martin Gaite. The six contributing authors are scholars from New Zealand, England, Ireland, Italy and Wales. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book The Biosocial Construction of Femininity written by Nancy Theriot and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1988-05-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did 19th-century women determine what behaviors and attitudes constituted femininity, and how did one generation pass on to another those social attitudes and adaptations deemed proper and necessary for womankind? Theriot argues convincingly that women themselves were the agents in the formation of attitudes about gender. . . . This book would be difficult for readers not familiar with some aspects of women's studies, but is an important and perceptive examination of the effect of sexual ideology. Choice This study focuses on feminine ideology and middle-class women's reproductive experience in nineteenth-century America. Using nineteenth-century popular literature written by women, medical literature, and autobiographies, this fascinating work offers a theoretical framework for viewing gender as a historical process and women as agents in gender formation. It discusses the relationship between sexual ideology and women's material lives, and their role in the creation and evolution of femininity, explaining what the author perceives as the generational interconnection of body experience, sexual ideology, and feminine consciousness. By analyzing the link between the external and internal dimensions of women's world through the application of phenomenological and social psychological methodology to historical materials, Theriot suggests a framework for understanding the relationship of female body and feminine ideology and for viewing the mother/daughter dyad as central in women's personal and collective history.

Download or read book Provocative Mothers and Their Precocious Daughters written by Suzanne Schnittman and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mothers and daughters share a special bond that ebbs and flows throughout their lives. It may not always be solid, but no matter what difficulties they face, their relationships are usually unbreakable.Take a step back in time to uncover the engaging lives of four mothers and daughters. As pioneer women's rights leaders, Martha Wright, Abby Kelley Foster, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone worked diligently for what they believed women deserved. Letters, diary entries, and journals reveal the strong mother-daughter relationships that not only enriched their personal lives, but the woman suffrage movement as a whole.From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, these women struggled to make the world a better place. Through their actions and beliefs, they forged a path for future generations and raised daughters to be determined young women who merit our attention today.

Download or read book Mothers and Daughters of Invention written by Autumn Stanley and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stanley traces women's inventions in five vital areas of technology worldwide--agriculture, medicine, reproduction, machines, and computers.

Download or read book Tramps Unfit Mothers and Neglected Children written by Sherri Broder and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2010-11-24 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late Victorian America few issues held the public's attention more closely than the allegedly unnatural family life of the urban poor. In Tramps, Unfit Mothers, and Neglected Children, Sherri Broder brings new insight to the powerful depictions of the urban poor that circulated in newspapers and novels, public debate and private correspondence, including the irresponsible tramp, the "fallen" single mother, and the neglected child. Broder considers how these representations contributed to debates over the nature of family life and focuses on the ways different historical actors—social reformers, labor activists, and ordinary laboring people—made use of the available cultural narratives about family, gender, and sexuality to comprehend changes in turn-of-the-century America. In the decades after the Civil War, Philadelphia was an important center of charity, child protection, and labor reform. Drawing on the rich records of the Pennsylvania Society to Protect Children from Cruelty, Broder assesses the intentions and consequences of reform efforts devoted to women and children at the turn of the century. Her research provides an eloquent study of how the terms used by social workers and their clients to discuss the condition of poverty continue to have a profound influence on social policies and develops a complex historical perspective on how social policy and representations of poor families have been and remain mutually influential.

Download or read book The Other Civil War written by Catherine Clinton and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1999-04-30 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively, comprehensive account of the struggle for women's rights at a vital time in our national history. The American women who worked for our country's indepence in 1776 hoped the new Republic would grant them unprecedented power and influence. But it was not until the next century that a hardy group of pathbreakers began the slow march on the road to autonomy, a road American women continue to travel today. When The Other Civil War was first published in 1984, it was hailed as a thought-provoking narrative of women's lives, among the first books to bring together the new accomplishments of the then-infant discipline of women's history. This revised edition offers a thoroughly updated bibliography, including not only new books and articles but also Internet sources from the past fifteen years of innovative scholarship.

Download or read book Rousseau s Daughters written by Jennifer J. Popiel and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2008 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provocative assessment of how new ideas about motherhood and domesticity in pre-Revolutionary France helped women demand social and political equality later on

Download or read book Augusta s Daughter written by Judit Martin and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt: "Presently the evenness of his breathing told her he was asleep. For a long time she lay on her back just as he had left her, mulling over her situation. In those brief minutes everything had supposedly righted itself. She had officially left her girlhood behind forever and become a woman. The days of wearing her hair down her back in a long braid were gone, although she was not yet entitled to wear a married woman's kerchief. Nor did she any longer belong to the group of young housemaids who had been her friends, nor to a group of married women whom she hardly knew. All at once she felt very alone, not knowing what was expected of her. The only thing she knew for sure was that her life had taken a false turn, and she didn't know how to set it right again." ========================= Nineteenth century Swedish peasant life was not always the dance around the Midsummer pole portrayed by the artists of the time. Those same peasants lived daily lives in the shadow of the all-powerful village church, controlled by the countless rules, customs, and traditions that governed every aspect of their existence, leaving no room for individual deviations. When it became known that Augusta Torsdotter's daughter Elsa-Carolina was illegitimate, the course of both of their lives irrevokably changed. As an adult, Elsa-Carolina immigrated to America, turning her back on the past. It wasn't until three-quarters of a century later, at the age of 94, that she returned to Sweden, to come to terms with her girlhood. "The harshness of Swedish peasant life and landscape is beautifully chronicled in Judit Martin's novel. Her knowledge of the culture, customs, work, superstitions, and attitudes of the day opens up that world for those of us seeking to know our Swedish ancestors." -Joan Morrison Granddaughter of Swedish immigrants Charleston, Maine ===================== "Wonderful and evocative! A captivating and enlightening read!" -Mr. Jan Smedh Bookseller The English Bookshop Upsala & Stockholm, Sweden This book is intended for mature audiences.

Download or read book Family and Society in American History written by Joseph M. Hawes and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The internal dynamics of families have altered dramatically as the family has gradually shifted from a unit of economic production to a collection of individuals in pursuit of different goals. Taking examples from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, this eclectic reader illuminates changes in the American family and presents some of the methods and approaches used to study families. Linking family patterns with changing social circumstances, Family and Society in American History considers husband-wife and parent-child relationships in light of language usage, gender roles, legal structures, and other contexts. For example, new legal attitudes toward divorce emerged as marriage came to be seen as a site for individual satisfaction. Marital fertility declined as American society modernized and pregnancy and childbirth came to be seen as medical rather than family issues. Schools and other institutions of the state absorbed functions formerly performed by the family, and women's economic contributions to the family disappeared from view as the social values of the early republic divided the male (work) from the female (home) sphere. In the twentieth century, a new domestic role for men--Mr. Do-It-Yourself--developed in the wake of suburbanization. In addition to identifying trends within the dominant culture, contributors consider the experiences of ethnic and immigrant families, reassessing generational conflict in Italian Harlem, comparing the attitudes of male and female Mexican migrant workers in Kansas, and showing how Chinese immigrant women targeted for rescue by Presbyterian mission workers took advantage of the gap between Chinese and American culture to increase their leverage in family and marital relationships. A diverse compendium of family life, Family and Society in American History provides an intriguing commentary on the permeability of social structures and interpersonal behavior.

Download or read book Mothers and Daughters written by Alice Hanna Deakins and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2012 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Family stories of the ties between mothers and daughters form the foundation of Mothers and Daughters: Complicated Connections Across Cultures. Nationally and internationally known feminist scholars frame, analyze, and explore mother-daughter bonds in this collection of essays. Cultures from around the world are mined for insights which reveal historical, generational, ethnic, political, religious, and social class differences. This book focuses on the tenacity of the connection between mothers and daughters, impediments to a strong connection, and practices of good communication. Mothers and Daughters will interest those studying communication, women's studies, psychology, sociology, anthropology, counseling, and cultural studies.

Download or read book The Lost Tradition written by Cathy N. Davidson and published by New York : F. Ungar Publishing Company. This book was released on 1980 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Modern Motherhood written by Jodi Vandenberg-Daves and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-26 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did mothers transform from parents of secondary importance in the colonies to having their multiple and complex roles connected to the well-being of the nation? In the first comprehensive history of motherhood in the United States, Jodi Vandenberg-Daves explores how tensions over the maternal role have been part and parcel of the development of American society. Modern Motherhood travels through redefinitions of motherhood over time, as mothers encountered a growing cadre of medical and psychological experts, increased their labor force participation, gained the right to vote, agitated for more resources to perform their maternal duties, and demonstrated their vast resourcefulness in providing for and nurturing their families. Navigating rigid gender role prescriptions and a crescendo of mother-blame by the middle of the twentieth century, mothers continued to innovate new ways to combine labor force participation and domestic responsibilities. By the 1960s, they were poised to challenge male expertise, in areas ranging from welfare and abortion rights to childbirth practices and the confinement of women to maternal roles. In the twenty-first century, Americans continue to struggle with maternal contradictions, as we pit an idealized role for mothers in children’s development against the social and economic realities of privatized caregiving, a paltry public policy structure, and mothers’ extensive employment outside the home. Building on decades of scholarship and spanning a wide range of topics, Vandenberg-Daves tells an inclusive tale of African American, Native American, Asian American, working class, rural, and other hitherto ignored families, exploring sources ranging from sermons, medical advice, diaries and letters to the speeches of impassioned maternal activists. Chapter topics include: inventing a new role for mothers; contradictions of moral motherhood; medicalizing the maternal body; science, expertise, and advice to mothers; uplifting and controlling mothers; modern reproduction; mothers’ resilience and adaptation; the middle-class wife and mother; mother power and mother angst; and mothers’ changing lives and continuous caregiving. While the discussion has been part of all eras of American history, the discussion of the meaning of modern motherhood is far from over.

Download or read book Little House Long Shadow written by Anita Clair Fellman and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2008-05-21 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond their status as classic children’s stories, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books play a significant role in American culture that most people cannot begin to appreciate. Millions of children have sampled the books in school; played out the roles of Laura and Mary; or visited Wilder homesites with their parents, who may be fans themselves. Yet, as Anita Clair Fellman shows, there is even more to this magical series with its clear emotional appeal: a covert political message that made many readers comfortable with the resurgence of conservatism in the Reagan years and beyond. In Little House, Long Shadow, a leading Wilder scholar offers a fresh interpretation of the Little House books that examines how this beloved body of children’s literature found its way into many facets of our culture and consciousness—even influencing the responsiveness of Americans to particular political views. Because both Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, opposed the New Deal programs being implemented during the period in which they wrote, their books reflect their use of family history as an argument against the state’s protection of individuals from economic uncertainty. Their writing emphasized the isolation of the Ingalls family and the family’s resilience in the face of crises and consistently equated self-sufficiency with family acceptance, security, and warmth. Fellman argues that the popularity of these books—abetted by Lane’s overtly libertarian views—helped lay the groundwork for a negative response to big government and a positive view of political individualism, contributing to the acceptance of contemporary conservatism while perpetuating a mythic West. Beyond tracing the emergence of this influence in the relationship between Wilder and her daughter, Fellman explores the continuing presence of the books—and their message—in modern cultural institutions from classrooms to tourism, newspaper editorials to Internet message boards. Little House, Long Shadow shows how ostensibly apolitical artifacts of popular culture can help explain shifts in political assumptions. It is a pioneering look at the dissemination of books in our culture that expands the discussion of recent political transformations—and suggests that sources other than political rhetoric have contributed to Americans’ renewed appreciation of individualist ideals.

Download or read book Generations written by Devoney Looser and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In universities and colleges across the country, feminists are debating their histories and future legacies. Some older feminists accuse younger ones of being overly theoretical, insufficiently political, and ungrateful to previous generations. The younger ones consider their foremothers naive or elitist. GENERATIONS explores these conflicts and challenges between older and younger feminist scholars.