Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women in the Early Republic (2012) by Lucia McMahon

Abstract

In the New Testament, the book of Timothy instructs all readers to "[l]et the woman learn in silence with all subjection" (Chapter 2, verse 11). The early national period in the United States proved to be an era that extended political and education opportunities to populations that was previously denied them. However, if, as Gordon Wood argues (1991), the revolutionary generation and the early national period that followed were seminal eras in American history for the expansion of democratic ideals, why were a majority of the educational opportunities reserved primarily for men? While historians have devoted significant energy to understanding the early national period in American history, far fewer studies have examined the impact this period had on women. Well versed in the field of women's education in the early national period, Lucia McMahon (2009aMcMahon ( , 2009b describes the effects of women's education on notions of gender equality. However, she breaks new ground with Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women in the Early Republic. In this carefully researched book, McMahon juxtaposes the awkward position of many educated women and asks, How did women who received an equal education to men balance their knowledge and experiences with the social position they were relegated to?McMahon begins her examination of women's educational opportunities in some of the nation's first female academies. She contends that education became an important tool in the creation of personal identity as women were "[r]eluctant to be cast as the coquette or the pedant," rather "women approached education with optimism, determined to fashion positive identities as learned women" (p. 19). For women, education rested within the acceptance that although they attained knowledge of the arts, science, history, and philosophy, their social standing still rested on the assumption that they would use that knowledge to raise future generations of Americans steeped in the tradition of republicanism.Building on the notion of Republican Motherhood (Kerber, 1980), McMahon expands our understanding of the influence education had on women of the period. Kerber contends that the revolutionary generation produced an expansion of democratic ideals but the majority of women retained their pre-Revolution social statuses. To Kerber, Republican Motherhood referred to the notion that women were the avenue to transfer republican values to their children, thus sustaining future generations in the ideas of civic duty, thrift, and social responsibility. Instead of attaining suffrage, greater access to education, and entrance into labor markets, women resumed their duties as caretakers and mothers after the completion of their education. Rather