Two works published in 1984 demonstrate contrasting approaches to writing the history of United States women. Buel and Buel's biography of Mary Fish (1736–1818) makes little effort to place her story in the context of recent historiography on women. Lebsock, meanwhile, attempts not only to write the history of women in one southern community, but also to redirect two decades of historiographical debate as to whether women gained or lost status in the nineteenth century as compared with the eighteenth century. Although both books offer the reader the opportunity to assess this controversy regarding women's status, only Lebsock's deals with it directly. She examines several different aspects of women's status, helping to refine and resolve the issues. She concludes that while women gained autonomy in some areas, especially in the private sphere, they lost it in many aspects of the economic sphere. More importantly, she shows that the debate itself depends on frame of reference: in many respects, women lost power in relation to men, for example, as certain jobs (delivering babies, supervising schools) were taken over by men. Yet women also gained power in comparison with their previous status, owning a higher proportion of real estate, for example. In contrast, Buel and Buel's biography provides ample raw material for questioning the myth, fostered by some historians, of a colonial golden age in the eighteenth century but does not give the reader much guidance in analyzing the controversy over women's status.


The author of the passage mentions the supervision of schools primarily in order to


remind readers of the role education played in the cultural changes of the nineteenth century in the United States

suggest an area in which nineteenth-century American women were relatively free to exercise power

provide an example of an occupation for which accurate data about women's participation are difficult to obtain

speculate about which occupations were considered suitable for United States women of the nineteenth century

illustrate how the answers to questions about women's status depend on particular contexts

考题讲解

题目分析:

文章推断题:作者提到“学校监督”的目的是?


选项分析:

A选项:提醒读者,教育在美国19世纪文化领域的变革中的作用:原文没有提到过美国教育领域的变革。

B选项:指出一个 19世纪美国女性相对权利较大的领域:文章出现school supervision的地方是“女性权利下降”的地方。

C选项:举一个例子以说明“美国女性参与度”的数据很难收集:原文没提。

D选项:
推断19世纪的美国女性适合啥职业:原文没提。

E选项:正确。
说明关于女性地位的问题要在特定环境下具体讨论:这个例子是用来说明女性在某些领域的权利下降,在另一些领域上升。为了论证“debate itself depends on frame of reference(这个辩论本身需要取决于参照物)”。

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