Abstract
This article takes notice of how concern for the "fallen seamstress" became a dominant trope in American social discourse during the early and middle decades of the nineteenth century. The seamstress's victimization in the labor market can be attributed to practices of employers who sought to maximize profits. Nonetheless, the bourgeoisie played an active part in the protest against the seamstress's exploitation, in order to justify its new dichotomy between home and work, and woman's exclusive place in the former. The seamstress's violation of this natural order — her status as a "public woman," that is, a prostitute — even if not her fault, served to pathologize the entire working class since fathers and husbands had clearly failed to fulfill their moral obligation to protect her from the dangers of the marketplace. As such, the trope of the victimized seamstress became the basis of a new, post-agrarian patriarchy that justified social hierarchy in a democracy that otherwise celebrated equality between citizens.
| Translated title of the contribution | Seamstresses and Whores: Working Women, Women's Work, and the Rise of the American Middle Class, 1820-1860 |
|---|---|
| Original language | Hebrew |
| Pages (from-to) | 73-101 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | היסטוריה: כתב-עת של החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית |
| Issue number | 15 |
| State | Published - 2005 |