What do you think of this quote from Benjamin Wadsworth from "The Well-Ordered Family," 1712? "O Woman, if thy Husband be not so young, beautiful, healthy, so well temper'd and qualified as thee couldst wish; if he has not such abilities, riches, honours, as some others have; if he does not carry it so well as he should...It may be thy discontent, fretting, scolding, quarrelling, makes thy Husband weary of the house, he can't abide to be at home, he has no quiet nor peace there; this makes him idle away his time, get into bad company, stay out late at nights, take to Tippling, Gaming and other ill practices..."
Clearly paternal authority was at the center of the notion of a well-ordered family in 17th-century America. How have things changed in the 300 years since Wadsworth wrote his treatise on family?
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From reading the quote once it is apparent to the reader that the husband/father figure holds the family together. However, when going back and reading the quote carefully several more times, I found that the author is calling the woman to hold the family together by not nagging to the husband, nor constantly complaining to or about him. If the wife treats her husband with kindness and lives in a docile manner, than her husband will want to be apart of the household as opposed to leaving the home and participating in the "ill practices" mentioned. The woman is seen as the one who is responsible for holding the family together even in today's society. However, what is different is that many women today enter the work force. Women can choose not to have a family, whereas 300 years ago there was no question as to whether a woman would have a family.
The author is clearly male and clearly "patriarchal." You are right that in today's "work place" there are many more women than ever before--but do you all think that the responsibility for keeping the family and home "stable" has shifted from the woman to a partnership?
We will discuss this more when we look at "Rip Van Winkle."
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