Women of Copley's Boston: Changing Gender Roles on the Eve of the American Revolution

Abstract

In the time period surrounding the American Revolution, social roles for women evolved alongside the political gains made by the colonies. No longer restricted to the domestic realm, American women became integral to the success of the new democratic republic, winning respect in terms of marriage, motherhood, education, and even business. As all citizens recognized their obligations to the republic, republican motherhood emerged, challenging women to educate themselves in order to raise competent children. With a fine eye to the past, one can see thier social progress documented in the portraiture of the most celebrated colonial painter, John Singleton Copley. During his residency in Boston, Copley paintd the portraits of hundreds of women. While many of his subjects hailed from the upper class, a select few represent the small demographic of self-made women. As a whole, a study of Copley's portraiture of Bostonian women provides an illustrative example of how women projected themselves in the progressive Revolutionary era.