Enthonohistorical Analysis of the American Woman, 1760-1890. A Study of Role Identity and Role Change

FAIN: FA-11282-75

Carrol Smith-Rosenberg
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205)

To study women's role, role change and role conflict in the American family from the 1760's to the 1890's, a period when America evolved from a pre-industrial into an industrialized and modernized society. The study will be based on both an analysis of prescriptive literature concerning normative definitions of women's role and upon women's unpublished diaries and letters. The research period will be spent in an intensive study of women's manuscript collections constructing what in effect would be an ethnohistory of the behavior and emotional life of 19th century American women organized around the life cycle.