Finding a Place: Women's Search for Public Life

Early American Women's Public Life
The Public Concerns of Women in 1840
History of the Women's Movement
Places for Women's Public Life
Authority in the Movement
The Feminine Style
Ways of Motivating Public Action

Rhetoric of Individualism
Rhetoric of Morality

Exercises

Early American Women's Public Life

Women participated in various ways in early American public life.

During the early history of American public life women participated in many public spheres, although within the context of men's place as leaders of the family. In a society organized vertically with the family as the primary unit of participation in public life, generally men spoke for the family. But in cases where no male was present, women often participated in public life.

In addition, there were also spheres where women developed public life with other women.

Religious communities. Particularly the Quaker church and utopian communities.
Craft communities. There were sectors of the economy dominated by women's craft including midwifery, butter making, candle making, basket weaving, spinning and weaving, millenary and several other home crafts. Women developed these skills in webs of instruction by other women and marketed the products in a public economy. (Read about Martha Ballard, a midwife.)
The reform communities. Earlier we noted women's participation in the reform movements of the 1830s and 1840s. Women were central in the communities of reformers. We will see that the women's movement grew from this connection.
The women's movement. After 1848, women developed a movement targeted to achieve access to the national public sphere. This reform movement provided women a space for public life.

But through early national history governmental public life in the United States became gendered.

Codification of law. After the revolution a process began to codify the common law into a written, regulatory form. This codification tended to take the most typical case and make it the universal case. Thus, the generally greater participation of men in the governmental sphere meant that the participation of women that had characterized some situations in common law became outside the law.
Republican Motherhood. Prior to the revolution the colonists had thought of themselves as "republican" more than "democratic." Republican beliefs held that those involved in government were not sent to govern their fellow citizens to represent their viewpoints so much as to represent what was right and best for the community. This was known as "public virtue" and the citizens role was to elect those with public virtue to office. After the revolution as democratic ideas spread, expectations developed that public virtue was a part of the training of the young. Soon, politics had become gendered. The image of democratic politics as a rough and tumble place, assigned the role of active involvement in politics to men and assigned the task of instilling public virtue as the contribution of women to government.
Emergence of Individualism and Democracy. After the revolution the vertical organization of society began to give way to a more democratic or horizontal organization influenced by the thoughts of the Enlightenment. Individualism -- the elevation of the individual over the family or community as the central element of society -- shifted the locus of responsibilities from the family to one's self, and thus the social obligation that enforced men's responsibility to their family weakened. At the same time, Enlightenment notions of democracy did not give all individuals access to government, only white male land owners. So while men could pursue their self-interest, women were blocked from doing so through government. The change left women with neither the social nor the legal protections to govern their welfare.
Separation of work and home. In an economy dominated by small farms, men and women worked together at the home farm. As the factory and store grew in importance in the 19th century, the site of home and work divided. This division gendered, and the home became the private sphere and the women's domain while work became the public sphere and the man's domain.
Shift in Education. Before the Civil War, education was seen as a form of moral instruction. The Orator, for example, attained authority in the epideictic arena of the National Public Sphere from his moral education. But after the Civil War, American education turned to becoming training for participation in the economy. This occurred just as women were given access to greater opportunities for higher education, but opportunities for women followed the old model of moral education. The difference gendered education and ironically reinforced the Cult of True Womanhood's vision of women as the teachers of morality.

By the 1830s, women had joined African Americans, Aboriginal Americans, and unlanded Americans as generally excluded from governmental spheres. We noted earlier how in the face of exclusion from the National Public Sphere in the early 1800s, other public spheres grew and the women's sphere was among these.

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The Public Concerns of Women in 1840

Thus, in the early nineteenth century, women were barred, legislatively or culturally, from many aspects of public life:

When women had access to college, it was in "seminaries" designed for women's "interests."
Women were denied access to the podium as speakers to the public. Generally, women could not speak to what were called "promiscuous audiences," that is, audiences that included both men and women.
Women were denied the Court as a place for public discourse. They could not testify in many cases and their rights were not recognized by laws.
Women were denied the legislature as a public space. They had to rely on male politicians to speak for them.
Women were denied the mechanism they saw as the key to altering their situation: the vote.

This division supported by a rhetoric used to define different roles for men and women based on their "nature."

There emerged the Cult of True Womanhood, sometimes called the Cult of Domesticity, in which women were deemed the gentler sex, charged with nurturing the young in a home (Republican Motherhood) that was a refuge from the less gentle competitive world of work. Males were deemed more aggressive and charged with defending the home and seeing after it from the outside world including the rough and tumble world of democratic government.

	Men	Women
Where	Outside home economically and politically	Home; haven from the rough and tumble of outside
Role	Earn a living for the family	Be the heart of the family; nurture children and husband
Domain	Politics and Finance	Spritual and Emotional
To succeed	Must be competitive, aggressive	Ministering, caring for others
Nature	Lustful, amoral, competitive, ambitious	pure, pious, domestic, submissive

At the same time they were denied legal recourse, women faced severe problems that seemed to call for public attention:

Economic poverty. Women were absent in most occupations. The death or disability of a husband by accident, illness, or alcoholism left women impoverished and without access to recourse.
Physical Abuse. Generally, since women were considered under the disciplinary responsibility of husbands, legal protections from brutality and violence were weak. Women were more protected than slaves, but still were seen as without personal legal protection.

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History of the Women's Movement

Emergence from the reform movement

Women co-opted the places and issues of the reform movements into discussions of women's equality and women's rights. Gave voice to women's lack of protections from economic and social dangers in the words of reform.
Women adopted the public meeting model from the reform movement, renting halls for their rallies
The result was the emergence of the Women's Movement with the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.
Declaration of Sentiments drew from the Reform movement's use of the Declaration of Independence.
In the 1850s women began to testify in legislative chambers seeking protections from law.

In the 1860s, the Women's Movement split into two factions

By 1860, two issues had emerged which fueled a lively debate at the convention.

Reform versus suffrage. The early movement had focused upon abuses toward women including the divorce laws which favored men if they existed at all. But by 1860, some argued that if women only had the vote they could solve their own problems. This division led to the Divorce Debate on the Convention floor in 1860. Reformers argued for divorce reform; suffragists argued for marriage and against divorce.
Abolition versus general reform. Many in the 1860s saw the decade as the decade of liberation for African Americans and believed women should bide their time while that movement achieved success. Others believed in a joint strategy which sought the vote for women and African Americans in a single action.

By 1868-69, these divisions had split the movement into two organizations:

NWSA	AWSA
Stanton and Anthony headed up the National Women's Suffrage Association in New York	Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe headed up the American Women Suffrage Association in Boston
Argued for universal suffrage --makes for some strange allies--started endorsing Democratic Party which at the time was heavily anti-black suffrage; got involved with George Train (funding) who was a noted racist and very controversial figure who was trying to run for President	Argued for the "Negro Hour"--maintained the connections with the abolitionists
Argued for a constitutional amendment (Federal Enforcement) Anthony wrote the equal rights amendment	Worked for suffrage on a state-by-state basis (State Rights)
Published the Revolution--targeted working-class women and got involved in labor reform; a politically and socially "radical" and controversial publication	Published the Women's Journal --targeted women professionals and a lot of women not necessarily committed to suffrage for women (often published "success" stories of women)
Broader feminist vision--took on several issues including divorce laws, equal pay, dress reform	Focus was solely on suffrage (sometimes women's education issues)
A Rhetoric of Individualism	A Rhetoric of Morality

The 1890 Reunion

In 1890, the NWSA and the AWSA reunited into the National American Women's Suffrage Association.

Work at both state and national level for reform
At this point the movement really starts to become a mass movement
This is also the movement's most bigoted and narrow stage--almost exclusively white--time of harsh repression of black suffrage and citizenship rights throughout the country
Expands the places for Women's Public Discourse

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Places for Women's Public Life

In the early movement

Letters among early reformers
Dining tables and parlors of the Reform movement
Organized traveling lectures of women's audiences
Conventions after 1850

After the Civil War

The movement, like other places for public life organized into formal organizations.

Local organizational rallies evolved from the earlier lectures
Women often testified before legislative committees
State and National Conventions brought women together in the service of reform.

The Public Space

In general, the movement sought to provide women a place to develop their public voices so they could move into greater influence in the governmental sphere.

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Authority in the Women's Movement

In the early movement, tied to reform

Late in the movement

Authority is tied the long years of struggle

Respect for the first generation of leaders
Established through narratives of struggle. The stories were of the long struggle and the difficulties encountered .

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The Feminine Style

A style of discourse developed that has been called the feminine style (although it is not a style solely used by women). Karyln Campbell claims the style was rooted in the craft community experience. It has several characteristics:

Personal proof. Relied on personal experience and anecdotes for proof.
Constructed inductively. Often began with stories of women's success.
Invited active audience response.
Authority was in experiences.
Sought identification with the audience rather than elevation above them.
Focused for goal on empowering the audience by convincing them of the viability of their political participation.

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Ways of Motivating public action

A deep division developed in the 1860s and continued through the success of the movement that revolved around how you motivated public attention.

Rhetoric of Individualism	Rhetoric of Morality
Used argument from justice: Women are individuals, they are citizens, therefore they deserve the full rights of citizenship. Allowing them to participate in public life will fulfill them as individuals and contribute to the national community.	Used argument from expediency: Women are the gentler sex, the guardians of society's morality. Allowing them to participate in public life will make the national community more pure, more peaceful, more moral.
Built on the Declaration of Independence and the notion of natural rights. Grew directly from the Reform movement.	Built on the "Cult of True Womanhood." Attempted to turn the basis of opposition into a basis for support. Traded on the rhetoric of moral inheritance.
Important Ideographs: <rights> <citizens> <freedom> <equality>	Important Ideographs: <moral> <family> <security> <home> <family>
Example: Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Solitude of the Self"	Example: Rhetoric of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

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Exercises

You are having dinner in a home in upstate New York in 1862. Your guest argues that the War has now brought abolition within sight and that all energy should be focused upon the effort. Make the argument for attending to women's rights as well.
It is 1885 and you are addressing a local rally of members of the National Women's Suffrage Association. Write a speech calling for reform.
It is 1885 and you are addressing a local rally of members of the American Women's Suffrage Association. Write a speech for suffrage.
In a study group, organize a debate for the 1866 convention with one of you arguing the rhetoric of individualism and the other the rhetoric of morality.

This lecture was developed with the assistance of Lisa Gring-Pemble, Diane Blair, Michele Mason, and Lindsay Hayes.