Question

The author of the passage mentions the supervision of schools primarily in order to __________.

• A. Remind readers of the role education played in the cultural changes of the nineteenth century in the United States
• B. Suggest an area in which nineteenth-century American women were relatively free to exercise power
• C. Provide an example of an occupation for which accurate data about women's participation are difficult to obtain
• D. Speculate about which occupations were considered suitable for United States women of the nineteenth century
• E. Illustrate how the answers to questions about women's status depend on particular contexts

Answer 1

The correct option is E Illustrate how the answers to questions about women's status depend on particular contexts

The author mentions supervision of schools to illustrate one incident that Lebsock talks about where women lost status and how this loss depends on the frame of context that we are referring to - "She [Lebsock] concludes that while women gained autonomy in some areas, especially in the private sphere, they lost it in many aspects of the economic sphere. More importantly, she shows that the debate itself depends on frame of reference: in many respects, women lost power in relation to men, for example, as certain jobs (delivering babies, supervising schools) were taken over by men. Yet women also gained power in comparison with their previous status, owning a higher proportion of real estate for example." Therefore, the option E is the correct answer.