Blog: Republican Motherhood

 1.   What role did the Revolutionary War play in the transformation of housewifery to Republican Motherhood?

     The revolutionary war brought woman a whole new role in their society than they had ever had before. Woman were normally just looked at as looking after the house and the children when they really did much more than that and started contributing greatly to the war effort when all of the men were off fighting in the war.  With these new responsibilities the woman of the revolution began their new roles in society and can be seen as the ones who carried the revolution. The Revolution caused this to happen because the woman finally had a chance to step up and contribute something to their societies other than just being around their house. Soon into the revolution the colonial woman had new responsibilities such as becoming educated to allow themselves to contribute to their community and they would have to protect their property while their husbands were off to war. This education also allowed for the woman to pass their knowledge into their sons and teach them of the importance of the government and liberty.

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

                The consequences that woman had to face for trying to become more important and influential in their communities is that many men did not take them seriously. People thought that woman were not apt for doing anything other than being a house wife. The popular belief at that time was that the woman should just take care of the house when they had more things to offer than that. This common belief caused people to not accept the idea of woman having more power in the colonies. If they turned down their responsibilities in the house then they were not as accepted as the woman who did.

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

                The significance of the Republican Motherhood ideology is that it caused the woman during that time and in the future to realize they have opportunities for a role in their societies other than being a housewife. By becoming more educated and wanting to become responsible for more important things in their lives woman began pushing harder and harder to obtain this goal of being important in society. Republican Motherhood was the push that the colonial woman needed to realize that they wanted more responsibility.

               

1. The setting: There is a mother sitting on a couch with her two young sons without her husband. The room also is not very well lit but they all seem to be happy.
2. Who serves as the center of the portrait and why? How does the woman look? How is she “republican” rather than aristocrat? The center of the portrait is the mother because she is holding the two children. The woman looks young and wealthy. What makes her republican is that she is actually with her children and taking care of them rather than having a servant taking care of them like an aristocratic woman might. Also her husband is absent from the photo which might mean that she is more independent than other woman.
3. Her sons exhibit a bond with their mother because they all are very close in the picture and seem close to their mother so she must spend time with them and care for them.
4. The significance of the position of her arm is that she is holding her child close to her because she must have spent more time with her children because they all seem to care for each other and she is showing her motherly instincts by this position.