What Does Republican Motherhood Mean?

Republican Motherhood is a 20th-century term that represents an 18th-century attitude towards women’s roles in the emerging United States before, during, and after the American Revolution. It centered on the belief that patriots’ daughters should be raised to uphold republicanism’s ideals and pass on republican values to the next generation. This ideology placed national political importance on women’s roles as wives and mothers.

Republican Motherhood was an unspoken movement through which women used their influence in domestic and familial spheres to teach their children about the principles of republicanism. The key idea of Republican Motherhood was that women were responsible for early education, teaching and reinforcing patriotic knowledge and fervor at home. Changes for women would not come overnight, but the ideology recognized the critical role women played in the American experiment.

The first American female academies were founded in the 1790s, and the idea of an educated woman became known as “republican motherhood”. The key idea of Republican Motherhood was that women were responsible for the early education of boys who would someday become voting citizens. In the period following the American Revolution, Republican Motherhood, or the civic virtue of raising good republican children to serve the new nation, was recognized.

The significance of Republican Motherhood lies in its recognition of the critical role women played in the American experiment. As American cities grew in the early nineteenth century, middle-class women were expected to take responsibility for life at home, including raising children and educating them.