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Similarity and Political Patriarchy during the American Founding

University of Southern California

How did the American founders reconcile their revolutionary rhetoric of liberty and equality to ongoing patriarchy? Scholars generally argue that the founders perceived men and women to be different in ways that justified female subordination. The founders equated manhood to independence, reason, and virtue; associated womanhood with dependence, desire, and vice; and defined republican citizenship as the rule of sober males over impassioned females. This article suggests that the founders also perceived men and women to be similar in ways that perpetuated patriarchy. They saw both men and women as disorderly creatures with a capacity for chaos and a potential for procreativity. They defined the primary challenge of politics as controlling male disorders by tapping male procreativity while relying on patriarchal laws and customs to subdue disorderly women.

Key Words: patriarchy • gender similarity • gender difference • American founders • manhood • misogyny • disorderly men • male procreativity

Men and Masculinities, Vol. 1, No. 2, 193-219 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/1097184X98001002004


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