Abstract

In a reversal of her reputation in the United States, Harriet Beecher Stowe was considered the ideal feminist in nineteenth-century Argentina, while her views on race were downplayed. Both pro-feminist and anti-feminist Argentines emphasized the image of Stowe as the virtuous civic mother, whose writing was not designed to enhance her own fame but rather to defend the good mother's duty to raise enlightened citizens. This selective image of Stowe became part of the debates about the role of women in the new nation of Argentina. This article documents how Stowe was discussed in newspaper essays on the role of women, provides a historical context for the discussions, and contrasts the role of motherhood in the feminisms of the United States and Argentina.

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