Stepmothers, Wickedness, and the Stacking of the Deck March 4, 2009

The proverbial wicked stepmother has a history. I argue that although this stereotype had ancient roots the new cultural imperatives of Enlightenment Europe, stressing the importance of the sentimental family and motherhood, marginalized stepmothers in new ways. By extension, women, who took on a ready-made family, in eighteenth century New England, saw their task as particularly daunting. How could even the best stepmother hope to fill the void left by an idealized perfect mother?

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