Gender in the American Revolution

In this book, Linda Kerber fully explicated the concept of what she called "Republican Motherhood," which has become one of the most influential analytical lenses through which historians study gender in early America. Kerber conceived Republican Motherhood as a mechanism through which women in revolutionary America bridged the gap between their traditional private domestic sphere and the traditionally male public polity. Partly through revolution and partly through their own efforts, women found a new role for themselves as guardians of republican virtue.

The extent to which this role transformed the place of women in the polity was, however, uncertain, Kerber argues. Even after the wrench of revolution, she writes, "the image of the Republican Mother could be used to mask women's true place in the polis: they were still on its edges" (12).

Linda K. Kerber

Norton

1986

book

eng

Kerber, Linda K. Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. New York: Norton, 1986.