Dissertation Abstract

An Examination Of The Life And Thought Of Zina Fay Peirce,

An American Reformer And Feminist

by

Norma Pereira Atkinson

Degree: PH.D.

Year: 1983

Pages: 00218

Institution: Ball State University; 0013

Source: DAI, 44, no. 09A, (1983): 2859

Zina Fay Peirce (1836-1923), the first wife of Charles S. Peirce, America's great philosopher, was a woman who devoted her life to the cause of improving the position of women in America. This study examines her specific accomplishments as a reformer; attitudes about women in nineteenth-century America a.nd the effect such attitudes had on a woman of strong intellect and character; and the influence that she and her husband had on each other.

Her early and continued interest was to promote the idea of freeing women from domestic drudgery so that they could pursue their own talents and make themselves economically and politically independent. Although not a suffragist or a believer in the equality of the sexes, she believed that women had their own spheres of abilities and interests, as men did. Therefore, she promoted the concepts of cooperative housekeeping and of women voting for other women to represent them in a separate legislative body. The first of these ideas led to the establishment of a cooperative laundry in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1870; the second, to her participation in a Woman's Parliament which met in New York City in 1869. Both of these endeavors are examined at length, as are her views on abolition, marriage, immigration, education, and sexual mores.

The sources of information include numerous letters which she wrote; letters written by others about her; and her published works, which include a novel, pamphlets, and journal and newspaper articles

SUBJECT(S)

Descriptor: HISTORY, UNITED STATES

BIOGRAPHY

Accession No: AAG8401286

Provider: OCLC

Database: Dissertations