Choosing to Lead: Women and the Crisis of American Values

In this provocative and thoughtful scholarly essay, Buchanan, a historian and associate dean of Harvard Divinity School, contends that the cultural concept of a ""good woman"" as a married mother responsible for society's moral health and the concurrent stigmatization of illegitimacy limits female participation in civic life. Maternal virtue, according to the author, is not a ""natural"" or inborn trait but rather had its historical roots in the Christian traditions of the 16th century. Even today, she notes, the concept forms a cornerstone of American values. To inspire women today, Buchanan looks to the extraordinary achievements of 19th-century female social reformers whose public accomplishments were obscured by male-dominated academia. She is hopeful that their example will energize women to become more active civic leaders who will restructure motherhood to include compensation for women's labor and stimulate a societal response to meeting the needs of all children and their caregivers. (June)