Linda Kerber argued in the mid-1980’s that after the American Revolution (1775-1783), an ideology of “republican motherhood” resulted in a surge of educational opportunities for women in the United States.  Kerber maintained that the leaders of the new nation wanted women to be educated in order to raise politically virtuous sons.  A virtuous citizenry was considered essential to the success of the country’s republican form of government; virtue was to be instilled not only by churches and schools, but by families, where the mother’s role was crucial.  Thus, according to Kerber, motherhood became pivotal to the fate of the republic, providing justification for an unprecedented attention to female education.

      Introduction of the republican motherhood thesis dramatically changed historiography.  Prior to Kerber’s work, educational historians barely mentioned women and girls; Thomas Woody’s 1929 work is the notable exception.  Examining newspaper advertisements for academies, Woody found that educational opportunities increased for both girls and boys around 1750.  Pointing to “An Essay on Woman” (1753) as reflecting a shift in view, Woody also claimed that practical education for females had many advocates before the Revolution. Woody’s evidence challenges the notion that the Revolution changed attitudes regarding female education, although it may have accelerated earlier trends. Historians’ reliance on Kerber’s “republican motherhood” thesis may have obscured the presence of these trends, making it difficult to determine to what extent the Revolution really changed women’s lives.

Q12:

The passage suggests that, with regard to the history of women’s education in the United States, Kerber’s work differs from Woody’s primarily concerning which of the following?

A.    The extent to which women were interested in pursuing educational opportunities in the eighteenth century

B.    The extent of the support for educational opportunities for girls prior to the American Revolution

C.    The extent of public resistance to educational opportunities for women after the American Revolution

D.    Whether attitudes toward women’s educational opportunities changed during the eighteenth century

E.     Whether women needed to be educated in order to contribute to the success of a republican form of government

答案是B

其实做这道题我很不清楚的呀，虽然我文章看的很明白~~请问从哪里看出是选B呢？

最后一句话：历史学家对K的”Republican motherhood”观点的信赖很可能掩盖了已有的趋势（指的是上一句中的美国独立战争之前就有的female education的趋势，也就是W的观点），因此导致难以确定美国独立战争到底在多大程度上改变了妇女的生活。

选B的原因：第一段中K认为“an ideology of “republican motherhood” resulted in a surge of

educational opportunities for women in the United States.”第二段中W认为“practical education for females had many advocates before the Revolution”。因此二者对 educational opportunities for girls prior Revolution的支持程度观点不同。