The American Woman's Home

Returned from a visit to the Wester History Collection at the University of Oklahoma library tonight, where I put a copy of HBS/Catherine Beecher's The American Woman's Home on hold. Our library has at least three non-circulating copies of the book, and I chose the WH copy mainly because the facility is open until ten on weeknights.

I have been reading the book on Kindle for iPod. It was a free download. I guess I've read about 40 pages of the 500-page book so far. I couldn't tell until I looked at the book in the library, because the Kindle version I'm using has no page numbers.

The whole idea of Kindle editions would take Stowe a little bit of time to get used to, but I have no doubt she's hurdle the learning curve and get right in stride with technology. Reading The American Woman's Home, I am struck by the knowledge and capacity of these two women. It is like reading Better Homes and Gardens, if the advice in the magazine were taken seriously and not just as entertainment. The sisters present a design for a house and have it and its furnishings and utensils planned down to inch measurement. It's a really rare thing these days to find housekeeping advice that meticulous.

One surprising reason for this is that the sisters were trying to raise the profile of housekeeping and mothering by somewhat formalizing training. Doctors and lawyers, they argue, take ten years to prepare for their profession, while mothers are responsible for the health and safety of the most vulnerable population, and yet their work is considered the lowest form of professional degradation. They do not say, as I expected them to, that women have no training.

They go on to argue that the job is mostly manual labor, but that Jesus and Paul were both manual laborers themselves. They go back and forth between the humility and the honor of the job. I wonder if mothering and housekeeping really was so poorly thought of. I'm sure these sisters knew the field. It is so strange to me, though, to imagine that these female roles really weren't respected.

On a personal note, I certainly can use help and advice, but wisdom is what I most need. Wisdom is applying the right advice in the right situation. Sometimes the more parenting advice I read, the less I know what to do. I wonder if trying to "professionalize" something necessarily raises its profile. Ugh. Sometimes I am very glad I am not "paid" for this job. The pressure would be too intense. And how in the world would I be evaluated, anyway?

I am reading for the sake of research, but I hope to glean some insight on how to run my home, too. I would like to be as well-versed in how to manage my budget, furnishings, clothing, etc. as I am in how to download a free copy of an out-of-print book onto my iPod.