Dutiful daughters. 1797 Lizzie : do what anybody desires of you -- 1830-1840 Lucy : dutiful helper -- 1852 Mary Ellen : the power to set things going -- Enslaved Harriet and Louisa : oh child! Thou art a little slave -- 1861 Mollie : a romping child -- Adrift. 1900-1914 Ethel and Amanda : the suburban girl and the cook -- 1931-1941 Connie : I had 78 pennies -- Back home. 1955 Tina and Beverly : "I got sort of lost" -- Reaching out and away. 1965-1972 Lynn : the sports star -- 2000 Meggy, Ally, and Sarah : "We were good enough; we could do it" -- Conclusion : a domestic revival -- Epilogue : the women they became.
Summary
"Few American parents expect their children to play an important role on the home front. The average daughter does fewer than ten hours of housework a week; sons do only two. What are the consequences of this dramatic cultural shilt? The portraits of 14 girls aged 6 to 14, when their ideas of duty and self remained in flux, are used as a starting point for discussion on how to bring daughters and their brothers back into the flow of American home life. The author explores how Americans might make girls feel essential on the home front without denying them the right of self-definition." "Collins posits that nothing we can give our children in the public sphere can offset the loss. Collins concludes that Americans must rebuild a domestic culture that moves beyond the damaging sex-based division of labor so common in the past."--Jacket.