The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780–1920

Abstract

Women's political participation took place in the context of the home, but the important point is that the home was a basis for political action. As Linda K. Kerber and Mary Beth Norton have shown, the political involvement of women through the private sphere took new forms by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Women combined political activity, domesticity, and republican thought through motherhood. Although outside of formal politics, mothering was crucial: by raising civic-minded, virtuous sons, they insured the survival of the republic. Much work on women's political involvement is necessary before we can fully understand the connections between women's activities and American politics. Attention to the interaction between women's political activities and the political system itself can tell us much about the position of women in the nineteenth century. In addition, it can provide a new understanding of the political society in which women worked—and which they helped change.