Two works published in 1984 demonstrate contrasting

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Two works published in 1984 demonstrate
contrasting approaches to writing the history of
United States women. Buel and Buel’s biography of
Mary Fish (1736–1818) makes little effort to place
her story in the context of recent historiography on

women. Lebsock, meanwhile, attempts not only to
write the history of women in one southern
community, but also to redirect two decades of
historiographical debate as to whether women
gained or lost status in the nineteenth century as

compared with the eighteenth century. Although
both books offer the reader the opportunity to
assess this controversy regarding women’s status,
only Lebsock’s deals with it directly. She examines
several different aspects of women’s status, helping

to refi ne and resolve the issues. She concludes that
while women gained autonomy in some areas,
especially in the private sphere, they lost it in many
aspects of the economic sphere. More importantly,
she shows that the debate itself depends on frame

of reference: in many respects, women lost power
in relation to men, for example, as certain jobs
(delivering babies, supervising schools) were taken
over by men. Yet women also gained power in
comparison with their previous status, owning a

higher proportion of real estate, for example. In
contrast, Buel and Buel’s biography provides ample
raw material for questioning the myth, fostered by
some historians, of a colonial golden age in the
eighteenth century but does not give the reader

much guidance in analyzing the controversy over
women’s status.


81. The passage suggests that Buel and Buel’s biography
of Mary Fish provides evidence for which of the
following views of women’s history?

(A) Women have lost power in relation to men since
the colonial era.
(B) Women of the colonial era were not as likely to
be concerned with their status as were women
in the nineteenth century.
(C) The colonial era was not as favorable for women
as some historians have believed.
(D) Women had more economic autonomy in the
colonial era than in the nineteenth century.
(E) Women’s occupations were generally more
respected in the colonial era than in the
nineteenth century.

Any thoughts about this ?

Thanks in advance
Voodoo