The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930 by Anne Firor Scott

Anne Firor Scott, The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1970).

The Southern Lady, by Anne Firor Scott, deals with the changes in the actuality of women's lives in the South from prior to the Civil War until after women received the right to vote. She explains that her purpose in writing this book "is fourfold: to describe the culturally defined image of the lady; to trace the effect this definition had on women's behavior; to describe the realities of women's lives which were often at odds with this image; to describe an characterize the struggle of women to free themselves from the confines of cultural expectation and find a way to self-determination," (p. x) and within these purposes, her thesis may also be found. As a result of profound changes in the lives of southern women, most notably the Civil War and the Nineteenth Amendment, the southern ideal of womanhood slowly eroded away.

Scott spends the first half of the book dealing with the lifestyle of women prior to and during the Civil War, while the second half of the book is concerned with life after the Civil War, up until a few years after women received the vote. She notes that it was during this first period when the ideal social role of women was best enforced. She speculates that the maintenance of slavery and the subjugation of women were closely linked to each other as a result of the "traditional landowning aristocracy... [and] the patriarchal family structure." (p. 16) However, the Civil War, destroyed slavery, defeated the South, and, as a result, undermined the patriarchy. Women's roles changed substantially within only a few years after the ending of the Civil War. In increasing numbers, women entered the job market, usually as a result of their husband's death or disability, but later for more personal reasons. In addition to entering the work force, these women entered other more prominent roles in the public sphere, starting with a multitude of social causes, but progressing eventually to more political arenas. After obtaining the vote, southern women continued to push for social and political reform, attempts which frequently culminated in success.

Although the ideal of womanhood was eroded by major events in the 19th and 20th centuries, this ideal weathered the test of time reasonably well, and Scott finds that it remained in place for many women at the end of the 1930s, and beyond. Despite major gains by southern women, the ideal of womanhood was too strong, and in some instances too cherished by men and women alike, for it to disappear in a short period of time. While certainly altered, it would not disappear entirely even after women took a more active role in their own lives by working and voting.

Scott uses mainly primary sources in this work of social history, collections of which can be found at a number of southern universities. While diaries and personal letters are used primarily for the first portion of the book, the latter part of the book relies heavily on the public records that women left behind. The text of the book is largely made up of quotes taken directly from these sources, but subjected to little individual interpretation. Instead, blocks of quotes are interpreted to illustrate larger points, proving that the generalizations made were true of many southern women.

Her approach to the material is somewhat congratulatory, applauding the efforts and successes of the women who attempted to break the traditional southern mold, but it is also very well documented and justified in its congratulatory attitude. Additionally, she takes into consideration the other side of women in this era, those women who did not wish to change their way of life, although her mentions of these women are fewer and further between. Overall, this was a very informative book, filled with sufficient detail and explanation to make the main points coherent.