from Hypatia Volume 19, Number 2

Excerpt from

Heaven-Appointed Educators of Mind: Catharine Beecher and the Moral Power of Women

Catherine Villanueva Gardner

---

Permission to Copy

You may download, save, or print for your personal use without permission. If you wish to disseminate the electronic article, or to produce multiple copies for classroom or educational use, please request permission from:

Copyright Clearance Center
Professional Relations Department
222 Rosewood Drive
Danvers MA 01923

FAX: 978-750-4470/4744
Web address: www.copyright.com

For other permissions or reprint use contact:

Rights and Permissions, Journals Division
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton St.
Bloomington, IN 47404

FAX: 812 855-8507
E-mail: journals@indiana.edu

---

Catharine Beecher held that women possessed a moral power that could allow them to play a vital role in the moral and social progress of nineteenth century America. Problematically, this power could only be obtained through their subordination to the greatest social happiness. I wish to argue that this notion of subordination, properly framed within her ethico-religious system, can in fact lead to economic independence for women and a surprisingly robust conception of moral power.

Brought up as a Calvinist, Catharine Esther Beecher (1800–878) involved herself with an evangelical zeal both in the actual teaching of women and in campaigning for female education. The recognition she gained for her work in this area--and for her work on domestic economy--has tended to overshadow the fact that she was also a philosopher. Even commentators who have discussed Beecher’s philosophical thought have tended not to focus on offering a philosophical analysis of it. For example, Kathryn Kish Sklar does explore Beecher’s philosophical and religious thought in her definitive account of Beecher’s life and work, Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity (1973), but her concern is to place it chronologically within the historical context of the evolving social structure of nineteenth-century America.

Likewise, Mark David Hall, in "Catharine Beecher: America’s First Female Philosopher and Theologian," decries the lack of attention paid by commentators to Beecher’s philosophical thought, something he considers to be particularly egregious in light of the fact that he holds her to be "America’s first female philosopher and theologian to publish her work in a systematic form" (2000, 65). But while he includes a discussion of Beecher’s central philosophical work, The Elements of Mental and Moral Philosophy (Beecher 1831), his main goal is to elaborate Beecher’s theological beliefs and their interconnection with her philosophical views.

IU Press Journals Home Page

More about Hypatia

Library Recommendation

Advance Information

Table of Contents

Copyright Clearance