WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

by Nancy Woloch ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 1984

A full-scale history of American women? An impossible task accomplished through an intriguing strategy. Woloch writes her nine chapters in pairs: the first singles out a woman whose life reveals the crosscurrents of her time, the second discusses those currents and how they shaped the lives of women generally. From Puritan Mary Rowlandson's captivity among the Narragansetts onward, the ideology of female subordination was tested by the developing American reality. In the Colonial period, early growth in sectarianism increased women's status, while witchcraft accusations and trials reflected tensions among women and between social groups. Post-Revolutionary America saw an increase in civilization and industry, and South Carolinian Eliza Pinckney perfectly symbolized ""republican motherhood"": no longer ""liable to be viewed as a loud-mouthed shrew, a meddling interloper, or a devil's accomplice. . . she might now be considered a rational individual and even a quasi-autonomous one--within the family circle."" But there was a new trend in American society, of which Abigail Adams warned: ""I deprecate that restless spirit, and that baneful pride, ambition, and thirst for power which will finally make us as wretched as our neighbors."" The next shift is reflected in the career of Sarah Hale, whose Godey's Lady's Book evolved from attacks on female weakness and frivolity to glorification of women's separate sphere. But not all women danced to the new tune: in the first half of the 19th century, reform efforts--abolitionism, communitarianism, women's rights--flourished; in the second half, women moved into new jobs. Woloch highlights Jane Addams, who, like other newly-educated career women, ""integrated Victorian virtues with an activist social role."" The 1920s represent a ""crucible of contemporary middle class roles""--with some (such as Margaret Sanger) following political paths to equality, others (such as the flapper, ""a pal and a sport"") relying on more personal strategies. In the ""emergencies"" of the 1930s and 1940s, it was the image of the public-spirited woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, that dominated; in the 1960s, again, activist Anne Moody (of the Woolworth lunch counter sit-in) and feminist Betty Friedan faced their individual ""turning points"" and through them helped turn society. Throughout, Woloch successfully weaves together individual and society to reveal ""women's strategies, individual and collective, for acting as agents of change."" Broad, lively scholarship.

Pub Date: May 21, 1984

ISBN: 0073385573

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION