1.8 Using the Domestic Historical Perspective interview

By Kristin Post

Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South

Introductory script

So far, we have learned that Dr. Boyd has complex views of the role of a woman. On the one hand, she considers herself feminine and would not take to the streets. On the other, she has held prominent positions in faculty, and encouraged other women to take more prominent leadership roles in politics and in academic life. She has said she does not agree with women’s libbers, but she did advocate equal pay for equal work. In this next excerpt, we learn more about how Dr. Boyd sees the role of women since the Revolutionary War.

Preliminary questions

1. Dr. Boyd and her interviewer are very well-read, and mention several books throughout the interview that deal with the historical role of women. In your readings for this class or others, have you come across any theories explaining the roles women have played in society?
2. Dr. Boyd mentioned earlier that Southern women were “put on a pedestal” by men, and remained there, despite the duties they played during the Civil War. What does that phrase mean? Can you find any supporting evidence in what you have experienced in the South?

The recording

Play the Domestic Historical Perspective oral history excerpt. Running time 2 minutes 08 seconds.

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Transcript

Rosamonde R. Boyd

Women could do anything they wanted to—in the colonial era—economically, professionally, mainly in running a farm or a plantation, or running an, inn or having a millinery shop. Women could do most anything they wanted to do and they helped the men build the country, build the colonies, build the society, the civilization.

But, in the nineteenth century, she claims, men began to think that women had some positions they wanted and women were too active, that their role was entirely too equal to that of the male. So as population increased and we had more men wanting positions, wanting opportunity, wanting the leadership, they began to talk about women being the weaker sex, women being the gentle sex, women needing the protection of men, women being so lovely that they must be worshiped on a pedestal. Men’s selfishness, she thought, pushed women out of inn-keeping and pushed them out of running plantations, pushed them out of their own little businesses, and took over. Then they gave the woman the feeling of being adored and of being beautiful and of being wanted.

Constance Myers

As compensation.

Rosamonde R. Boyd

Yes, which is a very interesting approach.

Constance Myers

I think that it’s probably valid. Legislation restricting their participation, or hinting at this restriction, was drafted in the state constitution where the suffrage was limited.

Rosamonde R. Boyd

Yes. Then, after 1920, we began struggling to get women back where they could do whatever they wanted without criticism.

Follow-up questions

1. What does this theory imply about men and women and their passivity or aggressiveness in changing their situation?
2. In what way does this theory affect your concept of the women’s rights movement? Does it make a difference to consider that women were fighting to return rights they once enjoyed rather than to attain rights they never had?
3. Using your textbook or other outside sources, find evidence that supports or refutes the thesis that “women could do almost anything they wanted” economically and professionally.

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Related topics

• Search LEARN NC for more resources on Rosamonde Boyd, colonial, equality, women, women's rights, and women's work.