John S. C. Abbott's Views on Female Education in Antebellum America: Schooling as Pseudo‐Training

Abstract

In Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory, Nancy J. Chodorow argues that the emergence of modern industrial society affected the sex-role of girls in complex ways. the one hand, she writes, go to school to prepare for life in a technologically and socially complex society. On the other, there is a sense in which this schooling is a pseudo-training. It is not meant to interfere with the much more important training to be ?feminine' and a wife and mother, which is embedded in the girls' unconscious development (55). This tension was especially evident during the debates over female education that took place in mid-nineteenth century America. Traditionalists argued that advanced education for girls could undermine the willingness of girls to embrace their future domestic and wifely duties. However, some educational reformers, including John S. C. Abbott, countered by arguing that advanced education for girls was compatible with preparing females to perform their traditional roles in society. In a sense, Abbott and other like-minded reformers viewed female education as the sort of pseudo-training described by Chodorow.Barbara Welter spells out the traditional female roles in antebellum America in her landmark article titled Cult of True Womanhood. She explains that American girls from the 1830s and 1840s were expected to take on the attributes of during their teenage years. According to Welter, these attributes included piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity (152). Women who possessed these characteristics were held up as the perfect wives and mothers and touted as the salvation of the American republic (Welter 172-73; Friedman 117). The religious and social leaders from this period generally felt that the qualities associated with true womanhood were best cultivated in the home and the church, not the school. These leaders often saw true womanhood as being in conflict with advanced education. At least in New England, girls regularly attended common school, but once they mastered the skills of reading, writing, and basic arithmetic their formal education usually came to a close (Boylan 160-61). In the opinion of numerous proponents of true womanhood, education beyond this point served no purpose in preparing females to perform their domestic and wifely duties, the most important of which was to bear and raise children (Welter 166-67). In the words of Linda K. Kerber, the author of Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America, model republican woman was a mother (228).John S. G. Abbott's Writings on Female EducationThe prejudice against educated women did not deter Jacob, John S. C., Gorham D., and Charles E. Abbott, four brothers from Maine, from entering the field of female education. Either individually or in various combinations, the Abbott brothers operated several schools for girls or young women during the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. The most famous of these, Abbotts' Institution for the Education of Young Ladies, opened in 1843 at a New York City address. Although the Abbotts were among the first Americans to advocate higher education for females, they did not think that this goal conflicted with women's traditional roles. All four brothers believed that education could actually reinforce the ideals associated with true womanhood, but they left it to John S. C. Abbott to make this argument in print. His writings on this topic underscore how entrenched sexist views and values were during this period in American history. Even though he believed in the importance of female education, he clearly did not embrace the values associated with gender equalityJohnS. C. Abbott's interest in the education of females can be traced back to the early 1830s. In January 1830, after completing his education at Bowdoin College and Andover Theological Seminary, Abbott moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where he served as pastor of the Central Calvinistic Church. …