海角大神

In a memoir written late in her life, teacher and poet Lucy Larcom recalled the decade she worked at a cotton mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the mid-1800s. 鈥淚 felt that I belonged to the world, that there was something for me to do in it,鈥� she enthused. As Lillian Faderman illustrates in her sweeping 鈥淲oman: The American History of an Idea,鈥� that sentiment had been largely denied to women, who had long been told that their place was in the home.聽

In her exhaustive study, Faderman, a prominent LGBTQ historian and professor emerita at California State University, Fresno, charts the changing meaning of 鈥渨oman鈥� from the 17th century to the present day. With such an expansive time frame, she necessarily writes in terms of broad historical patterns, but she illustrates them with a wealth of examples.聽

When small numbers of women became industrial wage laborers in the early 1800s 鈥� performing their jobs away from the watchful eyes of their families, as opposed to bringing spinning or weaving work into their homes 鈥� the shift was momentous. As Faderman observes, a woman could 鈥渂egin to define herself outside of her roles as daughter, wife, and mother.鈥澛�

Throughout the book, Faderman is attentive to issues of race and class, noting that dominant notions of womanhood oppressed different women in different ways. In early America, upper-class white women had little choice but to fulfill the role of 鈥渓ady,鈥� while some middle-class women aspired to that status. On the other hand, enslaved Black women were particularly vulnerable to rape and abuse.

During the 19th century, women increasingly argued that their difference from men made them morally superior rather than inferior. With this justification, many embraced a range of causes, including temperance, the abolition of slavery, and suffrage. Still, they were denied the full rights of citizenship. 鈥淭he contradiction was too blatant to ignore,鈥� Faderman writes. 鈥淧opular sentiment deemed woman morally superior to man while perpetually reminding her of the inferiority of her place.鈥�

鈥淲oman鈥� proceeds briskly through American history, documenting cycles of progress followed by backlash. Faderman observes that wars gave women space to 鈥渟tep beyond the boundaries that were deemed natural to them,鈥� but that periods of crisis were often followed by renewed calls for women to occupy traditional roles. 聽

For instance, during the Depression, when jobs were scarce, women were pressured to leave the workforce to make room for men. When the United States entered World War II, however, women were needed to take over the jobs of men fighting overseas. They were 鈥渦rged out of the home that they had so recently been urged into,鈥� Faderman wryly notes. But in the postwar years, women were once again called upon to quit their jobs, to marry young, and stay home raising children.聽

Faderman tells the fascinating story of Coya Knutson, the first woman from Minnesota elected to Congress. She served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, but her campaign for a third term, in 1958, was derailed when her estranged husband signed a letter written by her political rivals urging her to quit politics and 鈥済o home and make a home for your husband and son.鈥� 鈥淪he was mocked all over America,鈥� Faderman reports, 鈥渨ith headlines jeering, 鈥楥oya, Come Home.鈥欌�� The leaked letter was seen as pivotal in her eventual defeat.

This stultifying cultural coercion, what Betty Friedan in 1963鈥檚 鈥淭he Feminine Mystique鈥� called 鈥渢he problem that has no name,鈥� helped give rise to the women鈥檚 liberation movement of the 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s.聽

The parade of names and events in 鈥淲oman鈥� can be dizzying. Still, the author鈥檚 impressive array of examples amply prove her central point, that oppressive 鈥渇ormulations of the idea of woman 鈥� notwithstanding some modifications here and there 鈥� kept a tyrannical hold in America for four hundred years.鈥� As she notes, notions of gender are now being contested in previously unimaginable ways. Could these new understandings of gender at last put the traditional concept of 鈥渨oman鈥� to rest? Because that concept has proved so persistent over the centuries, Faderman is not yet prepared to say.