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Heaven-Appointed Educators of Mind: Catharine Beecher and the Moral Power of Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Catherine Villanueva Gardner
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Abstract

Catharine Beecher held that women possessed a moral power that could allow them to play a vital role in the moral and social progress of nineteenth century America. Problematically, this power could only be obtained through their subordination to the greatest social happiness. I wish to argue that this notion of subordination, properly framed within her ethico-religious system, can in fact lead to economic independence for women and a surprisingly robust conception of moral power.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 19 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Women in the American Philosophical Tradition 1800-1930 , Spring 2004 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by Hypatia, Inc.

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