It is an odd but indisputable fact that the seventeenth-century Englis

Passage: English Women

Question: Specific Purpose

The Simple Story

Seventeenth-century English feminists sided with the Royalists, not the Parliamentarians. This is strange, because Royalists are often associated with the belief that the male head of household holds absolute power. One possible explanation is that Royalists actually didn’t commonly hold these patriarchal beliefs; however, that wouldn’t explain why the feminists were more commonly found among the Royalists. A better explanation (put forth by Gallagher) is that the feminists agreed with the Royalist belief in the power and sovereignty of the individual.

Sample Passage Map

Here is one way to map this passage. (Note: abbreviate as desired!)

P1: feminists more with R than P

weird b/c R believe in power for men

P2: CG: R beliefs related to absolute self

feminists (ex. MC) agreed with R on

that

Step 1: Identify the Question

The phrasing in order to in the question stem indicates that this is a Purpose question.

Step 2: Find the Support

The question refers you to line 9 of the passage. Reread that line and the surrounding text.

“Since Royalist ideology is often associated with the radical patriarchalism of seventeenth-century political theorist Robert Filmer—a patriarchalism that equates family and kingdom…—historians have been understandably puzzled by the fact that Royalist women wrote the earliest extended criticisms of the absolute subordination of women…”

Step 3: Predict an Answer

The author brings up Filmer while explaining why early feminists’ association with Royalism is surprising. Because Filmer’s radical patriarchalist beliefs are used in Royalism, it’s unusual that feminists would associate themselves with Royalist ideology.

Step 4: Eliminate and Find a Match

(A) Royalist ideology was radical, but the author does not claim that historians failed to realize that.

(B) To qualify a claim is to add caveats or exceptions to it, or to soften it. (Note: to qualify something does not mean to strengthen it.) The author does qualify the claim that patriarchalism and Royalism were closely associated, towards the end of the first paragraph. However, this isn’t why Filmer was initially brought up. In fact, the author initially mentions Filmer while noting that patriarchalism and Royalism were associated.

(C) The passage does not disagree with the view that feminists were associated with Royalism (in fact, the first sentence says this is indisputable). It only asks why that unusual association occurred.

(D) CORRECT. Filmer is brought up in order to demonstrate that Royalists held radical patriarchalist beliefs, which were in tension with the beliefs of early feminists.

(E) The passage does say that the Royalists and Parliamentarians may have had no consistent differences in their beliefs on family organization and women’s political rights. This isn’t why the author introduced Filmer in the first place, however; in this part of the passage, in fact, the author is noting that some people have questioned, or doubted, Filmer’s association with Royalism.

OA:E

OA:E

OA:D

Passage: English Women

Question: Weaken the Argument

The Simple Story

Seventeenth-century English feminists sided with the Royalists, not the Parliamentarians. This is strange, because Royalists are often associated with the belief that the male head of household holds absolute power. One possible explanation is that Royalists actually didn’t commonly hold these patriarchal beliefs; however, that wouldn’t explain why the feminists were more commonly found among the Royalists. A better explanation (put forth by Gallagher) is that the feminists agreed with the Royalist belief in the power and sovereignty of the individual.

Sample Passage Map

Here is one way to map this passage. (Note: abbreviate as desired!)

P1: feminists more with R than P

weird b/c R believe in power for men

P2: CG: R beliefs related to absolute self

feminists (ex. MC) agreed with R on

that

Step 1: Identify the Question

The phrase most clearly undermine in the question stem indicates that this is a Weaken the Argument question. Treat it in the same way you would treat a Weaken the Argument Critical Reasoning problem.

Step 2: Find the Support

Gallagher’s explanation of the link between Royalism and feminism is described at the beginning of the second paragraph:

“Catherine Gallagher argues that Royalism engendered feminism because the ideology of absolute monarchy provided a transition to an ideology of the absolute self.”

Step 3: Predict an Answer

The word engendered means brought about or caused to happen. Gallagher argues that Royalism brought about feminism because an idea from Royalism (absolute monarchy) allowed the feminists to develop the ideology of the absolute self.

In order to weaken Gallagher’s argument, the right answer might suggest that the ideology of absolute monarchy didn’t provide a transition to an ideology of the absolute self. It might also challenge the association between ideology of the absolute self and early feminism.

Step 4: Eliminate and Find a Match

(A) Gallagher’s argument does not relate Royalism to Parliamentarianism. Even if Royalists were better educated than Parliamentarians, their overall level of education could be either high or low. No specific conclusion about the Royalist women can be drawn from this limited information.

(B) It’s possible that Filmer was critical of Cavendish. However, the argument claims that feminism (represented by Cavendish) was based on Royalism (represented by Filmer), not the other way around. What matters is whether Cavendish was critical of Filmer’s ideas, which, from the information in the passage, she apparently wasn’t.

(C) CORRECT. If Cavendish was an outlier, then Gallagher is incorrect to connect Cavendish’s ideology of the absolute self with feminism in general. Gallagher’s explanation of why Royalism engendered feminism would be significantly weakened.

(D) This doesn’t relate to whether Royalism did or didn’t engender feminism. Knowing that the two ideologies were in agreement doesn’t provide any additional information about Royalism itself.

(E) The ideology of feminism could have been based on the majority faction’s beliefs. The presence of a minority faction does not make this less likely.

Passage: English Women

Question: Primary Purpose

The Simple Story

Seventeenth-century English feminists sided with the Royalists, not the Parliamentarians. This is strange, because Royalists are often associated with the belief that the male head of household holds absolute power. One possible explanation is that Royalists actually didn’t commonly hold these patriarchal beliefs; however, that wouldn’t explain why the feminists were more commonly found among the Royalists. A better explanation (put forth by Gallagher) is that the feminists agreed with the Royalist belief in the power and sovereignty of the individual.

Sample Passage Map

Here is one way to map this passage. (Note: abbreviate as desired!)

P1: feminists more with R than P

weird b/c R believe in power for men

P2: CG: R beliefs related to absolute self

feminists (ex. MC) agreed with R on

that

Step 1: Identify the Question

The phrase primary purpose in the question stem indicates that this is a Primary Purpose, or main idea, question.

Step 2: Find the Support

The support for a Purpose question is in the structure of the passage itself. The first paragraph introduces the idea that seventeenth-century feminists were, surprisingly, aligned with Royalists in the English Civil Wars. The remainder of the passage addresses why this phenomenon was surprising, then attempts to reconcile it using the concept of the ideology of the absolute self.

Step 3: Predict an Answer

The passage accomplishes three things: introduces a surprising fact, explains why it is surprising, then attempts to provide an explanation. The correct answer will incorporate these major elements of the passage.

Step 4: Eliminate and Find a Match

(A) The passage does not make a connection between seventeenth-century feminism and modern times. Instead, it addresses only the situation in the seventeenth century.

(B) CORRECT. The entire passage is dedicated to describing a puzzling phenomenon—the alignment between seventeenth-century feminists and Royalists—then providing an explanation for it.

(C) The political conflict described in the passage is the conflict between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The passage describes one of the factors (radical patriarchalism) involved in Royalist ideology, but it does not contrast this to another interpretation, nor does it describe the origins of the Royalist-Parliamentarian conflict.

(D) Filmer and Cavendish are both mentioned in the passage, but both of them are used as examples that assist the author in making broader points. Filmer is cited as an example of radical patriarchalism, which helps the author establish the strangeness of the phenomenon described in the first paragraph, while Cavendish is used to help the author explain that phenomenon. The passage is not primarily about these two characters, nor does the author attempt to specifically establish a link between them.

(E) The passage mentions this only briefly, towards the end of the first paragraph. It is not the main focus of that paragraph and is not mentioned in the second paragraph.