The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835

by Nancy F. Cott

This twentieth anniversary edition of Nancy F. Cott’s acclaimed study includes a new preface in which Cott assesses her own and other historian’s development of the concept of domesticity from the 1970s to the 1990s.

“Nancy Cott’s Bonds of Womanhood is not just a pioneer work in women’s history. It is a classic. Despite all the work published since, it is still an essential starting place for understanding New England in the early republic.”―Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

“Cott, still the best historian of women’s bonds and bondage, foresaw twenty years ago the tendency of domesticity’s bonds to lead both to feminism and the far right. An essential book for understanding today’s women.”―Carolyn Heilbrun

Reviews of the earlier

“A lovely, gentle, scholarly, and valuable book.”―Doris Grumbach, New York Times Book Review

“Women’s history at its best.”―Phyllis Kriegel, New Directions for Women

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Feminism, Womens Studies, Gender, School

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 1978

About the author

Nancy F. Cott is Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University, and the director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Reviews

[Kylie Vernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

nancy cott is brilliant and this was such a well-written social history on womanhood. it was ahead of its time in the historiography by far. cott and ulrich are the patron saints/bad ass bitches of american women’s history.

[Emma Brisbois · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely read. Her ability to be a pioneer in the field whilst simultaneously using some of the most difficult to interpret sources is something to be lauded! Further, I especially enjoyed the chapter on sisterhood—female friendship is so integral to society, and the attention it received in this book is something really special!

Bravo, Dr. Cott.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Cott's ideas have greatly affected the practice of women's history. This book, along with Linda Kerber's "Women of the Republic" and Mary Beth Norton's "Liberty's Daughters," helped to jumpstart the field in the late 1970s. Cott's book, with its statistical asides and somewhat technical tone, evokes the many community studies that were popular in the "New Social History" movement. Cott historicizes the idea of a woman's sphere in society. Rather than arguing (as Kerber does) that early America had a distinct woman's sphere, Cott says that male and female labor heavily overlapped in the colonial period. During the nineteenth century, however, industrialization afforded middle-class white women more leisure time. As literacy, evangelical religion, and women's education increased, these middle-class women reaped those benefits. They imbibed and produced fiction extolling a cult of domesticity. The home was the woman's sphere, where women raised their children to be good Christians and good republicans. In other words, the idea of the woman's sphere was a specific historical development between 1780 to 1835, as women who did not have to engage in heavy physical labor daily could socialize more and enjoy space away from their husbands. Poor and illiterate women, plus women of color, would not have had time or access to such a woman's sphere. Very interesting material.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cott wrote The Bonds of Womanhood to demonstrate how the lives of American women in 19th New England created a cult of "true womanhood" to promote and support feminism. During these years women were idealized as godly like saints and mothers imbued with virtue. Womans' Role dictated that women marry and provide a home that was a happy sanctuary for her husband and children while men held the more important role of a place in society, outside the home. This view was held without question and encouraged by books and "women's magazines." Women contributed to this image by trying to live up to the unrealistic duties it required.

[Kari McDowell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is an area of personal and professional interest for me, I did struggle to get through this one. As far as I know, this is the first lengthy historical argument about the cult of domesticity in the nineteenth century. I will definitely revisit this in future.

[Lynn Davidman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book by a wonderful feminist historian. Her work is pathbreaking

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting arguments and while Im personally not fond with some of the conclusions the reasoning provided for them makes it hard to disagree

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cott’s work was historiographical foundational, in that she implemented women’s primary source documents with new social history approach. Cott examines changes in women’s work and economic role, domestic ideology, women’s education, and women’s role in religion during the early 19th century, which coincided in the conception of “woman’s sphere.” Cott argues that women used domestic influence, religious morality, and child nurture to wield feminine social power, breaking down hierarchical masculine authority that was nonetheless limited and confining. Yet, Cott coincides it allowed for the ideological consolidation of woman’ rights. Cott's work is well done, but much else has been done since building on the foundations she set.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for my Women's History class, and it was a pretty good book. It got pretty dense with examples at times, but I liked to track the evolution of women in Industrial Revolution times. It's interesting to see the ways in which women moved from the domestic to the workplace, and the characteristics of that move. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in this particular faction of women's history.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Analytical incisiveness on gender FAR ahead of its time: theorizing the simultaneous constraints and possibilities created by identities a whole generation before queer theory was doing it.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great book! I suggest reading this book for anyone who is interested in womans history.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required reading but very interesting. It does give answers, perhaps unintentionally, to questions I've had for a long time.

[AskHistorians]

Classic study of the emergence of "woman's sphere" during the early republic.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foundational.

[Diani Pesántez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need for my school