Approaching this question, one must consider the meanings of “American” and “woman”.
Firstly, of the three hundred million Americans, each maintains their own cultural, political, religious, ethnic, and socio-economic differences. These differences are encouraged as part of our free-thinking, indepdendent political culture. Secondly, womanhood is a combination of different roles and stages of life that a woman, as opposed to the only alternative we are considering (man), could and should experience – this is where the idea of womanhood becomes tricky.
A woman can be an adolescent, lover, worker, wife, mother, grandmother…and the list goes on. We define a woman by what label we associate the individual woman with – as humans do to people and objects. As Socrates argued, the degree to which a person is considered “to have virtue” depends on the extent to which the person fulfills their role, or “own work”, “well”. Therefore, given that women (who engage with other people in a social setting) fulfill roles with certain responsibilities and work, our judgment about a woman arises from the degree to which a woman fulfills the work expected by the role the observer perceives her to be fulfilling, which can vary in different instances since a woman can fulfill multiple roles.
The meaning of being an American woman thus arises from the roles that American women fulfill relative to the roles other women fulfill.
Many of us think of Japanese women as having virtues of modesty, filial piety as a daughter, obedience as a wife, and hardworking/devotion as workers. We may view Western European women with a radically different image: fun-loving as a young adult, independent, strong-willed, and late-marrying. All of these ideas about women derive their substance by the culture they’re associated with.
What roles do American women fulfill that are uniquely American, and what does our culture say about our views of women in those roles?
Alexis de Tocqueville answers these questions as an outsider peering in to America from a traditional, aristocratic Europe nearly two centuries ago. He believed American women were radically different during youth and marriage. However, he believed that American women of all social and economic disparities had certain universal characteristics. His observations of American women, independent of those of European women, are applicable and reinforce my perception of the meaning of American womanhood today.
American women as children and adolescents in the family structure fulfill similar roles as their male counterparts - brothers. Girls compete with their brothers and sisters academically, expand socially and revel in social groupings of choice. Girls pursue sports or the arts, with or without parental guidance, almost as freely as men do; however, girls are discouraged from being overly competitive and involved in more aggressive sports, since American culture deems it to detract from femininity.
As the girls and boys approach sexual maturity, both may assume the role of lovers. It is in the fulfillment of this role that the sexes assume different expectations by family and peers: women are encouraged to be passive in relationships, modest in sexual dealings and, and above all, expected to defend their virginity until the pressure to do so fades (usually after emancipation from the family, or parental consent, given the still dominant role of the family in most of America).
To allow for the mutual acknowledgement of such expectations by both daughter and parents, daughters are educated of their expectations through family (modesty), school (abstinence), the media (passivity), and religions that have laid the foundation of American culture (puritan forms of Christianity). The transition from parental guidance to independence is often seamless, as young American women are prepared to enter the world, armed with the knowledge and emotional strength they developed as adolescents.
More generally though, independent women in America are educated (often to the same level of men), to be made more aware of the world’s opportunities and vices, and how to protect themselves from those evils. An independent woman is seen as more competent when she can resist temptations or overpowering forces, and forge successful relationships.
While independence of the mind and body is favored as an independent woman, the roles of women change upon marriage. Through social pressure and education, a woman realizes the need for security and enduring happiness and sees marriage as a method of permanently achieving these goals. She sacrifices the independence of her mind and body for her husband, understanding that men expect this of women in marriage. However, she does not give up her ability to be competent in performing tasks, and is expected to continue the work ethic of her independent life, understanding that men want this in a marriage too.
Thus, a married American woman is strong emotionally and intellectually, but willingly submits to her husband as part of this mutually beneficial social contract.
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