In 1675, Louis XIV established the Parisian seamstresses’ guild, the f

Thank you for your response.

I realized my mistake.

The meaning in the passage is the seamstresses felt guild membership as a mark of independence (not status as working women gave them a certain degree of independence).

­GMATNinja Can you  please explain why C is not the answer ?

Question 1

This passage tells us about the origin of the Parisian seamstresses' guild before launching into a discussion about the conflict between the seamstresses' guild's and the tailors' guild.

­Here's (C):


In the passage, we learn that the Parisian seamstresses’ guild was established in 1675. Then we learn a whole bunch of effects that followed the creation of this guild. So we really don't get any "opposing views concerning the origins" of the guild -- as far as we know, everyone agrees on the origin story. The conflicts described in the passage are between the different guilds, not between people debating the origins of the seamstresses' guild.

Eliminate (C) for question 1.

I hope that helps!­

This passage was honestly pretty vague and confusing, so I'm leaving my explanations here for personal reference, but in case it finds itself helpful to anyone else who may stumble across it:

1. This is a main idea question. The premise of the passage is in the first sentence, talking about how Louis XIV set up the seamstress's guild. However, the actual main idea is in the last sentence of the first paragraph: "Tailors resented the ascension of seamstresses to guild status; seamstresses, meanwhile, were impatient with the remaining restrictions on their right to clothe women." before then diving into examples of why. Answer choice B is the only one that matches this.

2.­ The answer can be found in the main idea: "seamstresses, meanwhile, were impatient with the remaining restrictions on their right to clothe women." A is the only answer that matches this. (Note: B is a trick answer, it sounds somewhat correct, but there's 2 problems with it. 1 is that it's too extreme in saying "exclusively", and 2 the passage only mentions that "Guild members could ... but were prohibited from producing men’s clothing", which only talks about seamstresses in guilds specifically, NOT seamstresses as a whole)

3. This is an inference question that requires going into it answer by answer:

A. Wrong, no information providing Louis's reasonings for making the guilds was ever mentioned in the passage.
B. Wrong, while seamstresses couldn't make men's clothing on their own, nothing was said about what they could do with a master tailor (a master tailor was never mentioned in the passage either).
C. Wrong, this answer is extreme. It's mentioned in the passage that tailors saw their status in the guild as an extension of being the head of their household, but that doesn't entail a total monopoly over the guild, especially considering they would hire women from their family into the guild.
D. Correct, it is mentioned in the passage that: "Their guild was composed not of family units but of individual women who enjoyed unusual legal and economic privileges.". Key word being "unusual", implying that seamstresses usually DON'T enjoy such legal and economic privileges (and it is also implied that they couldn't form their own guilds before the new policies), but with Louis's new policies that allow them to form guilds independent of the family came this abnormal freedom for seamstresses.
E. Wrong, this is a VERY TRICKY ANSWER. While seamstresses as a group are explicitly described as seeing the guild independently from the patriarchal family, this question is about those seamstresses who were specifically hired in to be in the FAMILY guild, and NOT the ones working in their own independent guild. Furthermore, it's not status as a working woman that gave seamstresses a sense of independence, but rather their ability to form their own guild away from the patriarchy.

4. The "mark of independence" line implies that there were more benefits than simply making money; seamstresses get their own freedom, and enjoy legal privileges not previously available to them. A is the answer that best describes this.­