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David R. Novack Washington and Lee University
The eighties and nineties would appear to be an ideal time for a young woman to come of age in American society. Legal barriers to opportunity have been virtually eliminated, and attitudes toward women seem to reflect greater cultural appreciation of their abilities and needs. However, there are indications that females are presented with conflicting images which nurture new career-related expectations while simultaneously stressing traditional expressions of femininity, especially marriage and motherhood. The research in this article explores the dynamics of conflicting demands on young women through a survey conducted at a small liberal arts college with students who are predominantly white and heterosexual, from middle and upper income families. (Only three percent of the students are from minority backgrounds.) Issues explored involve spousal obligations, salary differentials, marriage-career aspirations, responsibilities toward young children, and perceived degree of liberalism-conservatism pertaining to the place of women in society. The article concludes with a focus on the dilemma posed by new opportunities through structural change and the coexistence of cultural lag in the form of traditional norms of femininity.
Home is woman's world, as well as her empire. Man lives more in society. The busy marts of trade, the bustling exchange, the activity of artisan life, are his spheres. They call forth his energies, and occupy his thoughts. But woman's life is spent in comparative solitude .... What is the sphere of woman? Home. The social circle.
What is her mission? To mould character, to fashion herself and others after the model character of Christ. (Wise, 1851, pp. 45, 88)
This statement, written in Young Lady's Counsellor, a treatise dedicated by Daniel Wise to "The Young Women of America," is quite clear about the place of women in society. Women are by "nature" suited for the domestic realm where they can care for their young and be the guardians of the moral life of the family and society (Frankfort, 1977).2 Clearly, as Meigs noted in 1859, a woman was not intended to participate in male-oriented affairs for "she has a head almost too small for intellect, but just big enough for love" (in Dorenkamp, McClymer, Moynihan, and Vadum, 1995, p. 10). Instead, the "real" woman of the late nineteenth century was...