History 1080: Gender and the Middle Class Child. 30 Sept. 2005

1. Family, Gender, and the Rise of the Middle Class

2. Children’s Work and Family Life in the 18^th Century

a. Family economy

- children are expected to work and socialize with adults

- children make goods to barter & sell for cash (but don’t get their own wages)

- gender differences: boys’ work & girls’ work

b. Law & Patriarchy

- women & children have no legal rights (British common law)

3. Sheltered Childhood and the Middle Class

a. Production of goods (eg, cloth) moves out of household →

- shift from the economically useful to emotionally priceless ideal child

- separation of ‘work’ and ‘home’

- public vs. ‘woman’s sphere’

- diverging gender roles

b. Home & woman’s sphere (Godey’s Lady’s Book)

- home = women’s domain

- intensive childrearing

- sheltered childhood ideal → pressure on parents

- privacy, housing & the nuclear family → specialized sleeping space

(bedrooms & children’s nurseries)

- Smaller families:

white birth rate drops from 7.04 in 1800 → 3.56 in 1900

fewer siblings = more rivalry?

4. Gender and the emotionally priceless child

a. Girlhood in the Urban Middle class

- relative freedom before marriage

- irony = girls work less, but face more rigid gender roles

- difficult transition to adulthood (Louisa May Alcott, Frances Willard)

b. Coping: religious conversion & same-sex friendships