>Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> >
> > It'd be nice if family values-style religion had less influence on
> > policy, but unfortunately it has plenty.
>
>There's some problem with the direction of causality here. Was it Ken that
>suggested a link between the women's movement and religiosity as a backlash?
>"Family Values" (which I'm reasonably sure were never invoked before the
>last 20 or
>30 years) seem definitely to be aimed at the women's movement -- and
>defenders of
>family values then reach for religious support for what is essentially not a
>religious but a social issue (if the two can be divided that neatly??). In any
>case, it would be nice if both would go away, whichever comes first.
NO. this is crap. there has been a "crisis of family values" since the founding of the republic. there was a slew of propaganda at the time to address the perceived need for good "republican mothers" to raise good "republican" families. the sentiment gradually became the foundation for the ideal of victorian womanhood--keeper of hearth and home, she the morally pious and virtuous one who soothed hubbies tired brow after a day of stern competition in the market and the pursuit of political self interest in the forum. the "family" is the foundation of the country (society) mythos has been around for quite some time and, as such, the family has been the object of grave concern. the biggest crisis tho came at the end of the 19th c as the divorce rate started to rise dramatically and there were all around calls for a "return to family values". and oh yes temperance and religious fundamentalism (what some have called a third awakening) was linked to the desire to keep men in their place: the temperance movement was, in part, about chastening men who would drink too much and fail to support their families (having spent the money on booze and other entertainment) or mistreated/beat them. (there was at the time an alarming number of marital desertions as men joined the growing ranks of hoboes wandering the nation -- see _Great Expectations_ Elaine Tyler May)
so, more complicated you see. religious revivalism was used as a basis to launch the women's movement and to empower women (in a limited way) by holding men to the breadwinner ethic.
kelley