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The “Mother Problem”: Up, Out, or Sidelined?

Mary Ann Mason and Eve Mason Ekman

in Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers

This chapter suggests that most women are neither steadily rising to equal representation in top positions, nor dropping out in large numbers. Research shows that highly educated women rarely leave ... More

This chapter suggests that most women are neither steadily rising to equal representation in top positions, nor dropping out in large numbers. Research shows that highly educated women rarely leave their chosen profession entirely. Instead they become caught in a “second tier” within or allied with their profession where they take breaks for family needs but return to work, sometimes on a reduced schedule but frequently full time, until retirement. It is between ages thirty and forty that women change career direction, and this is the decade when women are mostly likely to drop into the second tier. The discussion argues that the key to advancement is figuring out the “mother problem.” Children are a wonder and a blessing, not a problem; but motherhood is.Less

The “New Woman” and the Politics of Love, Marriage, and Divorce in Colonial Korea

Theodore Jun Yoo

in The Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea: Education, Labor, and Health, 1910-1945

This chapter analyzes a small coterie of educated women who emerged in the 1920s, challenging tradition and crafting new gender roles and identities. The visibility of the “new woman” in the public ... More

This chapter analyzes a small coterie of educated women who emerged in the 1920s, challenging tradition and crafting new gender roles and identities. The visibility of the “new woman” in the public sphere fueled sharp debates about this new prototypical female who rejected traditional domesticity, espoused free love, and demanded the right to divorce or remarry unconditionally. Though some scholars have argued that traditional Korea and the modern agenda of these women were incompatible, and hence the new woman was destined to fail, this chapter seeks to reconceptualize the issue. Rather than address the question of success or failure, the chapter examines how education gave new women the tools to articulate their sense of spatial location and identity as they negotiated their own vision of Korean womanhood.Less

Introduction: Between Cupid and Minerva

Lucia Mcmahon

in Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women in the Early American Republic

This introductory chapter considers the perceptions about women's education starting in the early nineteenth century. It details how a woman risked being labeled a pedant if she was too engrossed ... More

This introductory chapter considers the perceptions about women's education starting in the early nineteenth century. It details how a woman risked being labeled a pedant if she was too engrossed with education; yet she also risked being labeled a coquette if she neglected her education for fear that overexertion might interfere with her beauty and charm. Through myriad warnings and cautionary tales, the literary public sphere revealed a continued sense of ambivalence about educated women's roles in society. Rather than clarifying the relationship among education, equality, and difference, such prescriptive models may have created confusion for any woman who was relying on them to guide her behavior. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, which is to tell the stories of educated women to explore how the concept of mere equality functioned in early national society.Less

Women on the Rise: Education and the Popular Press

Chie Ikeya

in Refiguring Women, Colonialism, and Modernity in Burma

This chapter focuses on the rise of educated women in Burma during the 1920s and the contemporaneous introduction of the first women's column “Yuwadi sekku” (Young ladies' eyes) in Dagon Magazine. It ... More

This chapter focuses on the rise of educated women in Burma during the 1920s and the contemporaneous introduction of the first women's column “Yuwadi sekku” (Young ladies' eyes) in Dagon Magazine. It begins with an overview of changes in female education and literacy due to the expansion of a coeducational system of public instruction that provided primary and secondary education in Burma during the early twentieth century. It then examines how Dagon Magazine, and particularly “Yuwadi sekku,” helped in the emergence of the iconic educated young modern woman who, together with the first generation of women journalists, intellectuals, lawmakers, and teachers, symbolized the aspirations of young women in Burma to become knowledge brokers. It also considers how the women's column served as a forum for addressing the contentious “woman question”—that is, whether and which conditions of women needed reform. The chapter shows how the progress of women in Burma, especially through education, became a focal point of debates about modernization and nation building.Less

Work and Love in a Progressive Ebb Tide, 1919–1927

Robyn Muncy

in Relentless Reformer: Josephine Roche and Progressivism in Twentieth-Century America

This chapter details events in Josephine Roche's life from 1919 to 1927. For several years after the war, Roche remained an itinerant reformer. In part, she moved around a lot because she had not yet ... More

This chapter details events in Josephine Roche's life from 1919 to 1927. For several years after the war, Roche remained an itinerant reformer. In part, she moved around a lot because she had not yet situated herself at what she considered a fundamental site for rectifying inequalities; she was as a result never quite satisfied with where she was. In addition, during the decade after the war, unlike any other time in her life, Roche's days were significantly shaped by the family claim. On July 2, 1920, Roche married Edward Hale Bierstadt after a whirlwind romance. Like many other members of the second generation of college-educated women, Roche expected to combine her public career with marriage, and her belief in the possibility of doing so was fueled by her political community.Less

“Various Subjects That Passed between Two Young Ladies of America”: Reconstructing Female Friendship

Lucia Mcmahon

in Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women in the Early American Republic

This chapter reexamines the various meanings that female friendship held for educated women in the early national period using the lifelong friendship between Eunice Callender and Sarah Ripley as a ... More

This chapter reexamines the various meanings that female friendship held for educated women in the early national period using the lifelong friendship between Eunice Callender and Sarah Ripley as a case study. Women such as Eunice and Sarah maintained close friendships rooted in bonds of sensibility, emotion, and intellect. For the generations of women who were the first to attend newly established female academies, female friendships provide spaces for them to enact shared intellectual identities as learned women. Friends eagerly exchanged ideas, books, and favorite authors with one another as they created a world in which they could celebrate their intellectual interests without fear of criticism or disapproval. These friendships provided emotional fulfillment at the same time as they validated women's educational endeavors. Understanding the intellectual components of female friendships allow us to examine how education affected early national women's sense of themselves, as well as their aspirations for various personal and social relationships. Female friendships provided safe, nurturing environments for young women to craft identities that celebrated and validated their intellectual capacities merely as the equals of man.Less

Women's Education and Family Behavior: Trends in Marriage, Divorce, and Fertility

Adam Isen and Betsey Stevenson

in Demography and the Economy

This chapter examines the trends in marriage, divorce, and fertility among American women. It shows that over the past sixty years, marriage rates have fallen, divorce rates have increased, and ... More

This chapter examines the trends in marriage, divorce, and fertility among American women. It shows that over the past sixty years, marriage rates have fallen, divorce rates have increased, and fertility has fallen, and argues that the fundamental nature of marriage has changed. This chapter shows that this gradual switch in the predominant economic gain from marriage from production to consumption is consistent with the observed marriage trends. For instance, in recent years, the marriage rate for college-educated women has been roughly as high as for those who did not go to college. In addition to marriage and divorce, the chapter looks at changes in the pattern of remarriage and changes in the timing of childbirth.Less

“The Sweet Tranquility of Domestic Endearment”: Companionate Marriage

Lucia Mcmahon

in Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women in the Early American Republic

This chapter explores how the ideals, expectations, and experiences of marriage reflected educated women's search for intellectual and emotional equality. Juxtaposing personal writings and ... More

This chapter explores how the ideals, expectations, and experiences of marriage reflected educated women's search for intellectual and emotional equality. Juxtaposing personal writings and prescriptive representations, it examines how early national men and women interpreted and experienced the companionate ideal. Were educated women able to negotiate a degree of agency and autonomy within their marriages? Did companionate marriage provide opportunities for women to live as the mere equals of their husbands? The chapter shows that married women's experiences of mere equality remained limited to individual expressions of autonomy that did little to fundamentally change the legal or political constructs of marriage. For many women, motherhood further complicated these matters, presenting additional challenges to women seeking to live merely as the equals of man.Less

“So Material a Change”: Revisiting Republican Motherhood

Lucia Mcmahon

in Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women in the Early American Republic

This chapter considers the notion of republican motherhood, which sought to constrain women within the domestic sphere, and its influence on the educated women's search for mere equality. Educated ... More

This chapter considers the notion of republican motherhood, which sought to constrain women within the domestic sphere, and its influence on the educated women's search for mere equality. Educated women approached their various personal and social relationships with a sense of optimism, confident in the egalitarian rhetoric of the era. Yet the duties of motherhood tested their youthful claims to mere equality. The chapter focuses on the experiences of Jane Bayard Kirkpatrick, which illustrate the key tensions that women experienced—as mothers and in their other social roles—as the early national experimentation with mere equality buttressed against the nineteenth-century rhetoric of difference and separate spheres. In her efforts to enact the role of an “accomplished lady” to perfection, Jane Kirkpatrick developed a model of womanhood increasingly shaped by difference.Less

Summary and discussion

Margret Fine-Davis

in Changing Gender Roles and Attitudes to Family Formation in Ireland

Chapter 11 summarises and integrates the key findings from the previous chapters. The results are discussed in light of the significant changes in demographic behaviour, notably later age at marriage ... More

Chapter 11 summarises and integrates the key findings from the previous chapters. The results are discussed in light of the significant changes in demographic behaviour, notably later age at marriage and first birth, decreasing fertility and the increase in the proportion of single people in the population. The increasing education of women and their greater role in the labour force is leading to postponement of couple formation and childbearing. In addition the increasing value placed on autonomy, freedom and independence is also contributing to changes in family formation. This delay has little effect on men, but disproportionately affects women, who are caught between their biological clocks and their wish to continue actively in the labour market. This is exacerbated by the high cost of childcare and the lack of flexible working arrangements. As a result, young men and women who want to start families, while at the same time fulfilling their own needs for autonomy and development, are facing dilemmas. A price is being paid in terms of the lesser well-being of single people, relative to married and cohabiting people, and older, well-educated women are particularly affected. The results are discussed in relation to the international literature and implications for social policy are put forward.Less

Scientific Child Rearing, Organized Motherhood, and Parent Education

Alice Boardman Smuts

in Science in the Service of Children, 1893-1935

This chapter discusses the concepts of “scientific child rearing” and “scientific motherhood,” which were common parlance at the time among well-educated women. Scientific child rearing was expected ... More

This chapter discusses the concepts of “scientific child rearing” and “scientific motherhood,” which were common parlance at the time among well-educated women. Scientific child rearing was expected to transform motherhood into a true profession. According to Swaim, Cora Bussey Hillis traveled throughout Iowa telling women to pay more attention to their children than to household chores. Such advice from Hillis and other members of the National Congress of Mothers inspired a spate of editorials and letters to newspaper editors from irate men warning women not to neglect cooking and other wifely duties for childcare. Parents, of course, were not aware that the new ideas and the data on which they were based were questionable. Mothers formed clubs throughout the nation to acquire the new “scientific” child-rearing information and to share experiences.Less

Conclusion: Trajectories and Trade-offs

Andrea L. Turpin

in A New Moral Vision: Gender, Religion, and the Changing Purposes of American Higher Education, 1837-1917

This concluding chapter asserts that the United States has changed significantly since the 1830s, when American women first entered collegiate education. Both the antebellum period and the late ... More

This concluding chapter asserts that the United States has changed significantly since the 1830s, when American women first entered collegiate education. Both the antebellum period and the late Progressive Era were hotbeds of reform, but different environments produced different crops. Educational reformers in both periods sought to enlist both sexes in the religious crusade of bringing the kingdom of God to earth, but in different ways. It can be difficult to judge exactly how a college education shaped graduates' later paths. Yet the disproportionate numbers of Oberlin and Mount Holyoke graduates in ministry, missions, and teaching, and later of educated women and men in general who participated in Progressive Era reform movements, certainly suggest a significant correspondence between collegiate moral formation and later commitments.Less

A Brief Epilogue

Beata Grant

in Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China

This epilogue assesses the extent to which seventeenth-century women Chan masters participate in, benefit from, and contribute to the revival of seventeenth-century Linji Chan. The first thing to ... More

This epilogue assesses the extent to which seventeenth-century women Chan masters participate in, benefit from, and contribute to the revival of seventeenth-century Linji Chan. The first thing to note is that this was a time when more and more educated women were becoming active participants in the literary world through reading, writing, editing, and having works published, and they, like their male literati counterparts, were attracted and intrigued by this “textual” Chan revival. Indeed, the rhetoric of heroism and equality that was reimagined as part of the seventeenth-century revival of Chan Buddhism provided women with an opportunity to “do what men do”—that is, pursue active and respected public lives as Chan masters.Less

Middle America Reboots Democracy: The Emergence and Rapid Electoral Turn of the New Grassroots

Lara Putnam

in Upending American Politics: Polarizing Parties, Ideological Elites, and Citizen Activists from the Tea Party to the Anti-Trump Resistance

Right after the 2016 elections, Americans in towns, cities, and suburbs organized to oppose the Trump administration and reactivate grassroots citizenship. This chapter discusses who the newly active ... More

Right after the 2016 elections, Americans in towns, cities, and suburbs organized to oppose the Trump administration and reactivate grassroots citizenship. This chapter discusses who the newly active citizens are and what they have been doing in their communities and in electoral politics. Most group participants are educated white women. They formed new connections and encouraged locally grounded civic engagement, and many spent weekends going door-to-door on behalf of Democratic candidates. In the 2018 elections, some groups in Democratic strongholds perceived incumbents as blocking the way to pro-democracy reforms. Meanwhile, their deep-red-district counterparts supported Democratic contenders against entrenched Republican incumbents. The ideological coordinates of candidates they supported were diverse, yet the underlying pattern was consistent: new activists fought for better government, up and down the ballot.Less

“Beautiful Beyond Belief”: Cultural Tourism Survives

in We'll Always Have Paris: American Tourists in France since 1930

Many middle-class American tourists in Europe by 1930, especially males, were dismissing the search for high culture as something of interest only to social-climbing women. They defined human ... More

Many middle-class American tourists in Europe by 1930, especially males, were dismissing the search for high culture as something of interest only to social-climbing women. They defined human achievement in terms of the industrial and commercial prowess, at which America excelled, and felt no need to slog through museums trying to decipher the Old Masters' allegorical paintings. Well-educated women continued to provide a good market for this kind of cultural tourism. Cultural tourism also persisted on the agendas of the large group tours that still occasionally swept through France. The students on junior-year-abroad programs were probably the best able to benefit from France's cultural opportunities. For some white Americans, learning to accommodate themselves to interracial couples may have been the most culturally improving aspect of their trip to France.Less