When Did Republican Motherhood Become Popular?

Republican Motherhood, an 18th-century term, was a concept that emphasized the role of women in the emerging United States before, during, and after the American Revolution. It centered around the idea that women were responsible for early education and were expected to pass on these ideals to their children. The first American female academies were founded in the 1790s, and this idea of an educated woman became known as “republican motherhood”.

The ideology of Republican Motherhood was first used by historian Linda K. Kerber in 1976 and again in 1980 in her book Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Historians like Kerber have pointed to John Locke’s Treatises of Government as likely inspiration for Republican Motherhood ideology. The key idea of Republican Motherhood was that women should be educated in the principles of liberty, independence, and democracy to the extent that they could pass on these ideals.

A new idea began to develop as the nation approached the turn of the century in terms of what exactly a woman’s role in a republic should be. In one letter on 11 August 1798, Abigail Cunningham of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, used examples from both Ancient Greece and the Bible to explain the concept of “republican motherhood”. Fanny Wright, an English heiress who immigrated to the United States in 1825, was passionate about social reform, especially abolition, and among her followers, was a prominent advocate for women’s rights and the importance of education for women.