Each culture has its own attitudes toward the concept of gender, and each allocates specific roles based upon gender. In modern America, specific sentiments have developed which find their roots in early American culture. Modern American concepts about gender and gender roles presuppose that in the past women were subjugated due to biological frailties. Is this supposition correct? If so, when and why did the modern concept emerge that claims that societal dictates, not biology, is the main factor in women being seen as a second class citizen.
Ruth H. Bloch, former Chair of Women's Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, has written a series of essays on the subject of gender and morality in early American culture. These essays have been published under the title of Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 1650-1800. In this intriguing work, Bloch investigates gender relationships and religious morality in Early American society. In the process she illustrates how our image of Early American gender roles has been romanticized. She also analyzes how these early patterns developed, and how they metamorphosed into current theories about gender and the modern concept of the family. "All eight of the essays in this book concern the relationship between notions of masculinity and femininity and wider cultural systems of value, and all of them emphasize the role of symbols and ideas in shaping definitions of gender." (Pg. 3.)
The text is divided into three sections. The essays in the first section provide general contextual information that deals with trends in feminist theories, and modern gender roles. The second section begins Bloch's historical overview of eighteenth century gender constructs. The final section deals with the pre-revolutionary period and how evolving political theories altered conventional gender patterns.
You can get a sense for the scope of the material covered in these essays by perusing the titles of the eight essays contained in this collection:
Theory. A Culturalist Critique of Trends in Feminist Theory
History. Untangling the Roots of Modern Sex Roles: A Survey of Four Centuries of Change
Revaluing Motherhood. American Feminine Ideals in Transition: The Rise of the Moral Mother, 1785-1815
Regulating Courtship. Women and the Law of Courtship in Eighteenth-Century America
Utilitarian vs. Evangelical Perspectives. Women, Love, and the Thoughts of Edwards and Franklin
Religion and Sentimentalism. Religion, Literary Sentimentalism, and Popular Revolutionary Ideology
Public / Private. Gender and the Public / Private Dichotomy in American Revolutionary Thought
Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 1650-1800 is a college level text that is well suited for use in courses on Women's history, Early American Cultural history, as well as courses concerned with feminist writing or literature.
