Modern Motherhood: An American History

372 Pages·2014·2.598 MB·English

by  Jodi Vandenberg-Daves

Modern Motherhood
Q

Modern Motherhood
Q
An American History
Jodi Vandenberg-D aves
rutgers university press
new brunswick, new jersey, and london
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Vandenberg- Daves, Jodi.
Modern motherhood : an American history / Jodi Vandenberg- Daves.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0 –8 135–6 379–4 (hardcover : alk. paper)—I SBN 978–0 –8 135–6 378–7 (pbk. : alk.
paper)— ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 6380– 0 (e- book)
1. Families— United States— History. 2. Motherhood— United States— History.
3. Mothers—U nited States—H istory. I. Title.
HQ535.V36 2014
306.874'3— dc23 2013027195
A British Cataloging-i n-P ublication record for this book is available from the British
Library.
Copyright © 2014 by Jodi Vandenberg-D aves
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without writ-
ten permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset
Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as
defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
To my children, Allison, Sylvia, and Brad Vandenberg-D aves
And to all mothers, past, present, and future

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART I
Roots of Modern Motherhood:
Early America and the Nineteenth Century
1 Inventing a New Role for Mothers 11
2 Contradictions of Moral Motherhood:
Slavery, Race, and Reform 32
3 Medicalizing the Maternal Body 49
PART II
Modern Mothers: 1890– 1940
4 Science, Expertise, and Advice to Mothers 77
5 Grand Designs: Uplifting
and Controlling the Mothers 103
6 Modern Reproduction: The Fit and Unfit Mother 129
7 Mothers’ Resilience and
Adaptation in Modern America 150
vii
viii Contents
Figure Insert
PART III
Mothers of Invention: World War II to the Present
8 The Middle- Class Wife- and- Mother Box 173
9 Mother Power and Mother Angst 210
10 Mothers’ Changing Lives and Continuous Caregiving 247
Conclusion 280
Notes 287
Index 321
Acknowledgments
Years go by while a person labors over a book like this, about six years in this case, a
significant chapter in a lifetime. I am extremely grateful to those who supported me
along the way, contributed ideas, and made the often solitary journey less lonely.
This project has been generously supported by the University of Wisconsin–L a
Crosse, the College of Liberal Studies (CLS) and my home department, Women’s,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies. A CLS Sabbatical Grant, a UW– La Crosse Faculty
Research Grant, a UW–L a Crosse Faculty Development Grant, a CLS Small Grant,
crucial release time from teaching, and an atmosphere of constant encouragement
in my department made this book possible. I want to especially thank Dean Ruth-
ann Benson and my department chair, Deb Hoskins. At an institution with a heavy
teaching load, it is a rare faculty member whose department chair asks her, “What
do you really need to get this book done?” and then works with the dean to make it
happen. Deb’s leadership and dedication to genuinely supporting the work of her
colleagues are incomparable.
I also appreciate the support of Rima Apple, whose work I have admired for
many years and whose perceptive critiques, suggestions, and kind encouragement
of this project came at critical junctures. Special thanks, too, to Andrea O’Reilly and
the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI).
Andrea’s leadership of MIRCI and her personal collegiality have nurtured my
thinking about mothering and motherhood for more than a decade. Dr. Apple’s
and Dr. O’Reilly’s works inform this book, as do the works of several generations of
scholars whose names are scattered throughout my endnotes. This book is a tribute
to the collective work of great historical and feminist minds, and I hope I have done
them some justice in these pages. Among these scholars, a special note of thanks to
Sara M. Evans, my Ph.D. adviser, who originally gave me a model of accessible
historical writing, and to Norman Rosenberg, Peter Rachleff, James Stewart, and
Emily Rosenberg, who first taught me how to think historically. Thanks also for
the expertise of Leslie Mitchner, my editor at Rutgers University Press, who saw the
potential of this book immediately and supported its development along the way.
ix
x Acknowledgments
Special thank yous, as well, to Adi Hovav and Lisa Jerry, both of whom lent their
significant talents as professional editors to the manuscript, improving it in many
substantial ways.
It is especially humbling to sit down and thank the many people in my life who
have carefully and generously read chapters and offered thoughtful and immensely
helpful suggestions. Friend and colleague readers include Beth Cherne, Jaralee
Richter, Louise Edwards-S impson, Mahurq Khan, Elise Denlinger, Deb Hoskins,
Christina Haynes, Terry Lilley, Sanna Yoder, as well as a number of members of
the History Author Working Group (HAWG.) Over several years, HAWG provided
me an encouraging and intellectually challenging space to workshop chapters as
they evolved. Special thanks goes to HAWG member James Longhurst, whose
keen editorial eye shaped this manuscript in many places, to Marti Lybeck, whose
sense of the historical big picture is unparalleled, to Víctor Macías- González, who
directed me to numerous resources and provided editorial advice and encourage-
ment, and to Jennifer Trost, who kindly helped me with additional grant-s eeking
for the project.
Thanks, too, to kind departmental colleagues Andrea Hansen, Terry Langteau,
James R. Parker, and Nizam Arain, to long- term career mentor, Sandi Krajewski,
and to the many people across the UW– La Crosse campus who encouraged me
in the process. I am very appreciative of the work of librarian Jenifer Holman,
whose expertise proved invaluable throughout the research process, and to Saun-
dra Solum for technical assistance. I am also grateful for the talents of Kelly Nuss-
baum, historical research assistant par excellence, and Taylor Goodine, whose skills
with the English language made this a much better book. And thanks to all my
hundreds of students of women’s history and the history of motherhood. Without
their energy, ideas, and questions, this book would be much less rich and interest-
ing. I also want to especially thank Elise Denlinger for sharing her family history
with me and with the book’s readers and, while I’m at it, for years of friendship
and support for all my endeavors. And thanks to my many friends at Jule’s Coffee
House, where the vast majority of this book was written and edited, and to owner,
Chris Kahlow, who let me occupy a booth for hours on end for the small price of
the world’s greatest tea and scones.
For great meals, distraction, and fun along the way, special thanks to Kitty How-
ells, Sanna Yoder, Jaralee Richter, Beth Cherne, and their families, to Keely Rees,
Christine Hippert, Karyn Quinn, Sharon Jessee, Shu Li and Stefan Smith, to Melissa
Wallace, Kay Dailey, Janice Hansen and Heather Christiansen, part of my book
group/life support group, to Karen Dame, Sue Kuncio, Kim Ruth, and Mary Zim-
mermann, the original “moms” in my maternal circle from the early 1990s and
still so close to my heart, and to my dear friend from graduate school days, Louise
Edwards-S impson, a razor- sharp historical mind. Thanks also to my mother-i n-
law, Paula Daves, for many great conversations about motherhood, and of course
to my own mother and father, Charlene and Leslie Vandenberg, who originally
taught me what is most important about parenting, family, and the need for social
justice. In addition to new conversations with my parents while writing the book, it