The fields of antebellum (pre-Civil War) political history and women’s

I had a similar reasoning regarding this. GMATNinja can you please confirm?

You're exactly right. Check out this post for an explanation of this issue.

I hope that helps!

[quote="VeritasKarishma"][quote="VeritasKarishma"]Let's understand the passage:



2: The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements regarding most historians of the antebellum period?

A. They have failed to adequately contrast the differing roles that women played in the Democratic and Whig parties in the 1850’s.

B. They have failed to see that political propaganda advocating women’s political involvement did not reflect the reality of women’s actual roles.

C. They have incorrectly assumed that women’s party loyalty played a small role in Whig and Democratic party politics. - Correct. He says that historians have underestimated women's role.

D. They have misinterpreted descriptions of women’s involvement in party politics in records of female associations and women’s personal papers.

E. They have overlooked the role that women’s political activities played in the woman’s rights movement.


[quote]

The author does say that the historians have underestimated the extent and significance of women's political allegiance in the antebellum period. But where does the author talk about the historian's assumptions 'that women's party loyalty played a small role in Whig and Democratic party politics.' They may not have at all considered the role, small or big, in Whig and Democratic party politics.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Could you please clarify why option C but not B and D.

it is given: historians have underestimated women's role.
B says: They failed to see women actual roles. sounds familiar with underestimation.
D says: misinterpreted descriptions . Misinterpreted because not considered all facts and hence underestimation.
so i will chose B finally.
because in c: i can't find information if they incorrectly assumed any role. they just did underestimation of women's role and i want to find an option that gives me underestimation of women role. This i find in B

please suggest

You are picking up suitable words but ignoring what they mean in the sentences. You need to understand what the options (B) and (D) are actually saying.

B. They have failed to see that political propaganda advocating women’s political involvement did not reflect the reality of women’s actual roles.

"They failed to see women actual roles. sounds familiar with underestimation." - Incorrect
This option says that historians have failed to see that political propaganda (such as Whig propaganda) did not reflect women's actual roles. That is not true. We don't know whether political propaganda reflected reality or not.

D. They have misinterpreted descriptions of women’s involvement in party politics in records of female associations and women’s personal papers.

D says: misinterpreted descriptions . Misinterpreted because not considered all facts and hence underestimation. - Incorrect
This option says that historians have misinterpreted descriptions of women's involvement in politics recorded in their personal papers. All we know is the women's historians focussed on women's personal papers etc. Did the papers describe women's involvement in politics, we don't know. Then we certainly cannot say that the historians misinterpreted these descriptions in these papers.

Please provide official explanation for question 1 and 3,with regard to each of their options.

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GMATNinja

Ninja, can you please explain why B is wrong in Q1


1. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to

A. examine the tactics of antebellum political parties with regard to women

B. trace the effect of politics on the emergence of the woman’s rights movement

C. point out a deficiency in the study of a particular historical period

D. discuss the ideologies of opposing antebellum political parties

E. contrast the methodologies in two differing fields of historical inquiry

Hi GMATNinja VeritasKarishma isn't it "enhance" a too strong/ opinionated word compared to "conferred" ?! Many tks!

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma In (D) "women's demonstrations at rallies would influence men's voting behavior", even if the AC said "women's participation" rather than "women's demonstrations", isn't it wrong to say that they INFLUENCE men's voting behavior? There is no mention in the passage to say that women's participation on rallies INFLUENCED men's behavior, right? Tks!

Can anyone explain the OA for question 3. Why is it not B

Hi VidyaPrabhakar,

Please refer the below answer for Question 3:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-fields-o ... l#p2183964
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-fields-o ... l#p1676218


Let me know if you still have issues.

Thanks.

"confer" means to bestow, to give.
"enhance" means increased.

Conferring moral standing to the party increases the party's moral standing.

Question 3

In answering a GMAT Verbal questions, you've got to be careful to stick to the answer choice as it is written -- there's nothing to be gained from changing the wording of an answer choice.

In the passage, we're told that,

women who turned out at the party’s rallies gathered information that enabled them to mold party-loyal families

"Party-loyal families" suggests that these families will remain loyal to the Whig party, and presumable vote for the Whig party. Since we are told that the women who turned out at the party's rallies would mold these party-loyal families, we can infer that these women may be influencing the voting behavior of the men in their families.

This answer choice does depend on the difference between "women's participation in rallies" and "women's demonstrations at rallies." This is why changing the wording of an answer choice doesn't help -- you can only work with what's been listed in the question.

(D) is incorrect because the Whig propaganda in the passage does not mention any "women's demonstrations."


Let's make sure we're clear on what the Whig propaganda says in the passage before looking at (B). The passage tells us the women invited to the party's rallies:

1) enabled them to mold party-loyal families,
2) reminded men of moral values that transcended party loyalty,
3) conferred moral standing on the Whig party

Remember, we're looking for the answer choice that asserts something that is included in the Whig propaganda. (B) tells us:

There is nothing in the passage to suggest that women were the most important influence on political attitudes within a family. They might have molded party-loyal families but there could have been other, more important, influences on a family's political attitudes.

This is why (B) is not the correct answer to this question.

Let's take a look at (E):

Women's presence at rallies conferring moral standing on the part is very similar to them enhancing the moral standing of the party.

This answer choice is in the Whig propaganda in the passage as the third item in our list above, making (E) the answer to this question.

I hope that helps!

Question 1

To answer primary purpose questions, first break down the purpose of each paragraph:

• Paragraph 1: The author discusses a difference between sources used by two groups of historians who study the pre-Civil War era
• Paragraph 2: The author examines an error committed by BOTH groups

From this, we know that the author wrote this passage in order to discuss a problem with the way historians have studied pre-Civil War history.

This analysis nicely aligns with (C), which is the correct answer.

Here's (B):

(B) is off for a couple of reasons. First, what the author really cares about is critiquing a bunch of historians -- not tracing the origins of a historical movement. Second, the author really doesn't discuss the origins of the "women's rights movement." Sure, he/she talks about their political involvement, but there's no mention of this leading to women's rights (the right to vote, etc).

For these reasons, you can get rid of (B) for question 1.

I hope that helps!

Related Text:
However, most historians have underestimated the extent and significance of women’s political allegiance in the antebellum period.

for B
According to Whig propaganda, women who turned out at the party’s rallies gathered information that enabled them to mold party-loyal families, reminded men of moral values that transcended party loyalty, and conferred moral standing on the party. Virginia Democrats, in response, began to make similar appeals to women as well. By the mid-1850’s the inclusion of women in the rituals of party politics had become commonplace and the ideology that justified such inclusion had been assimilated by the Democrats.

Key message:He says that historians have underestimated women's role.

Key Problem:
After knowing the meaning of allegiance is loyalty, I could easily choose C. But in my first attempt, I guessed the meaning of allegiance as involvment . With this understanding, I did choose B.

They (most historians ) have failed to see that political propaganda advocating women’s political involvement did not reflect the reality of women’s actual roles. ( Women’s historians and Political historians underestimated women's role in politics and they moral standing that they brought to the party ).
I was very much convinced with B option. Please help to reject B.

AndrewN VeritasKarishma GMATNinja : please suggest how to reject B and how to deal with C if we don't guess the right meaning of the word.

It doesn't matter even if the meaning of the word "allegiance" is not clear to you. It makes no difference even if you thought it means "involvement"

This is what the author writes:
However, most historians have underestimated the extent and significance of women’s political allegiance in the antebellum period. For example, in the presidential election campaigns of the 1840’s, the Virginia Whig party strove to win the allegiance of Virginia’s women by inviting them to rallies and speeches. According to Whig propaganda, women who turned out at the party’s rallies gathered information that enabled them to mold party-loyal families, reminded men of moral values that transcended party loyalty, and conferred moral standing on the party.

So he thinks that most historians underestimated the significance of women. The Whig party strove to get women involved.

B. They have failed to see that political propaganda advocating women’s political involvement did not reflect the reality of women’s actual roles.

What was the women's actual role - we don't know. We only know what the Whig propaganda said. So did the historians fail to see that political propaganda did not reflect reality - we don't know.

C. They have incorrectly assumed that women’s party loyalty played a small role in Whig and Democratic party politics.

Correct. He says that most historians have underestimated the extent and significance of women’s political allegiance (even if it were involvement instead of allegiance)

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