The fair sex
Subtitle: white women and racial patriarchy in the early American Republic
By: Pauline Schloesser
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
Subjects: Warren, Mercy Otis, -- 1728-1814; Adams, Abigail, -- 1744-1818; Murray, Judith Sargent, -- 1751-1820; Sex role -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Women in politics -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Political culture -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Patriarchy -- United States -- History -- 18th century; United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809; United States -- Race relations -- Political aspects -- History -- 18th century
Description: "Once the egalitarian passions of the American Revolution had dimmed, the new nation settled into a conservative period that saw the legal and social subordination of women and non-white men. Politicians, ministers, writers, husbands, fathers, and brothers entreated Anglo-American women to assume responsibility for the nation's virtue. Thus, although disfranchised, they served an important national function, that of civilizing non-citizen.

They were encouraged to consider themselves the moral and intellectual superiors to non-whites, unruly men, and children. These white women were empowered by race and ethnicity and class, but limited by gender. And in seeking to maintain their advantages, they helped perpetuate the system of racial domination.".

"Schloesser examines the lives and writings of three female political intellectuals - Mercy Otis Warren, Abigail Smith Adams, and Judith Sargent Murray - each of whom was acutely aware of her tenuous position in the founding era of the republic. Carefully negotiating the gender and racial hierarchies of the nation, they at varying times asserted their rights and deferred to male governance.

In their public and private actions they represented the paradigm of racial patriarchy at its most complex and its most conflicted."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-236) and index
Table of contents: title: Race, gender, and woman citizenship in the American founding; title: Toward a theory of racial patriarchy; title: The ideology of the "fair sex"; title: The philosopher queen and the U.S. constitution: Mercy Otis Warren as a reluctant signatory; title: From revolution to racial patriarchy: the political pragmatism of Abigail Adams; title: Gleaning a self between the lines: Judith Sargent Murray