Frontier necessity raised women’s value but did not overturn male command of society

Evidence

The American woman found herself at first more emancipated than the European. Early in the nineteenth century, pioneer women had to share the hard work done by men, and they fought by their sides; they were far fewer than men, and thus a high value was placed on them. But little by little, their condition came to resemble that of women in the Old World; gallantry toward them was maintained; they kept their cultural privileges and a dominant position within the family; laws granted them a religious and moral role; but the command of society resided in the males’ hands. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 280

Categorization

• QUESTION: Beauvoir’s claim that pioneer conditions briefly elevated women’s status but then reverted — worth comparing with later Second Wave historiography that disputed exactly this frontier thesis.
• XREF: connects to: In primitive hordes male superiority was lived but not institutionalized — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 160; Economic emancipation alone does not place women in a situation identical to men’s — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1920; Female emancipation will not produce uniformity between the sexes — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1981 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Economic emancipation alone does not place women in a situation identical to men’s #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1920
• Female emancipation will not produce uniformity between the sexes #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1981
• Economic need, not ideology, drove women’s emancipation in Muslim societies #corroborates (0.80) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1147