LAD/Blog #5: Republican Motherhood

1. What role did the American Revolution play in the transformation of housewifery to Republican Motherhood?

         It allowed women to become patriotic by raising future children to aid in the revolutionary cause. That was the mother's role in revolutionary society.

2. What were the consequences of Republican Motherhood on women?

       They were not given the same level of education as men since they were required to remain at home and take care of their children. Plus, they were expected to act proper and correct a man's mistakes, while he was allowed to go off and be ungentlemanly.

3. What is the significance of the ideology of Republican Motherhood as a stage in the process of women's socialization?

These ideologies set the basis for which women were to be treated as for the next several hundred years. Men began slowly taking away what little rights women had, making them solely dependent on their male family member.

Mary Gibson Tilghman and her sons

1. Mary Gibson Tilghman and her two sons, sitting in a chair

2. Mary Tilghman is the center of the portrait. She looks prim and proper, like ladies were supposed to be. She is republican because she is rather simply dressed, pointing to the fact that she remains at home to take care of her children.

3. The sons look as though they were well taken care of and polite. Based on the way they were dressed, they already knew the manners of society.

4. Mary Tilghman's arm symbolizes the amount of power and protection she has over her children when they were that young.

Women's suffrage movement was based on the

rules set by republican motherhood, but they decided

to fight the inequality to get votes for women

and equal education opportunities