The identification of femininity with morality (RC)

[rx_11]

The identification of femininity with morality and a belief in the innate moral superiority of women were fundamental to the cult of female domesticity in the nineteenth-century United States. Ironically, this ideology of female benevolence empowered women in the realm of social activism, enabling them to escape the confines of their traditional domestic spheres and to enter prisons, hospitals, battlefields, and slums. By following this path, some women came to wield considerable authority in the distribution of resources and services in their communities.

The sentimentalized concept of female benevolence bore little resemblance to women's actual work, which was decidedly unsentimental and businesslike, in that it involved chartering societies, raising money, and paying salaries. Moreover, in the face of legal limitations on their right to control money and property, women had to find ingenious legal ways to run and finance organized philanthropy. In contrast to the day-to-day reality of this work, the idealized image of female benevolence lent a sentimental and gracious aura of altruism to the very real authority and privilege that some women commanded--which explains why some women activists clung tenaciously to this ideology. But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied a moral purity that precluded participation in the messy world of partisan politics.



1. According to the passage, the ideology of female benevolence was consistent with women taking part in each of the following spheres of activity EXCEPT

(A) organized philanthropy
(B) domestic life
(C) electoral politics
(D) fund-raising for worthy causes
(E) social work


Information in the passage suggests that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements concerning the cult of female domesticity?

(A) The cult of female domesticity developed independently of the concept of female benevolence.
(B) The cult of female domesticity was incompatible with women's participation in social activism.
(C) The cult of female domesticity incorporated ideological elements that actually helped some women to escape from their traditional domestic roles.
(D) The original motivation behind the promotion of the cult of female domesticity was to exclude women from partisan politics.
(E) The growth of organized philanthropy in the nineteenth-century United States is ultimately attributable to the cult of female domesticity.



Which of the following best summarizes the main point of the passage?

(A) The identification of femininity with morality promoted the notion of women's moral purity while excluding women from positions of authority in their communities.
(B) The belief in women's innate moral superiority allowed women to exercise political power without participating in partisan politics.
(C) The cult of female domesticity helped some women to gain power and privilege but kept most women confined to the domestic sphere.
(D) The ideology of female benevolence empowered women in the realm of social activism but placed limits on their direct political power.
(E) The idealization of female altruism enabled women to engage in philanthropic activities but prevented them from managing money and property.


This is a RC from prep.

The OA is C, C, D.

Dear instructors, could u explain why the correct answer is C, rather than D, in the FIRST question?

I think that the begining of the second paragraph has told us that the ideology bears little resemblance to women's actual works, including raising money and other charitable events. So why is D in the first question wrong? Help plz.

[RonPurewal]

note the red part:

1. According to the passage, the ideology of female benevolence was consistent with women taking part in each of the following spheres of activity EXCEPT

(A) organized philanthropy
(B) domestic life
(C) electoral politics
(D) fund-raising for worthy causes
(E) social work

"consistent with" is a much weaker condition than you apparently think. it doesn't necessarily have to mean "agrees with" or "similar to" -- it just means "doesn't contradict".

for instance, if i'm a gmat instructor, that's consistent with my being, say, an amateur bodybuilder or a model -- even though these two things have nothing at all to do with each other -- because they don't contradict each other. (by contrast, if i weigh 500 lbs, then that's inconsistent with being an amateur bodybuilder or model, since those two things rather directly exclude one another.)

so, you need to find direct evidence that the "female benevolence" thing actually contradicts one of these five options.
that evidence is here:
But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied a moral purity that precluded participation in the messy world of partisan politics

that's (c).

[igordudchenko]

Ron, what will be the correct approach to handle such text?

The text is very dense and specific and so are the questions that require reading big chunks of the text to find details. IMHO, initial 'skeleton' reading won't fly here.

Thanks!

[tim]

did you try it?

[igordudchenko]

Tim, yes, I first try to do the skeleton reading, but got virtually nothing useful: all 3 questions are detail-heavy, so I had to re-read the passage parts again and again. In total I solved all 3 questions correctly, but spent circa 2.5 min per question

[tim]

there's not much you're going to be able to do to keep from having to read (and possibly re-read) parts of the passage. the use of the skeletal sketch is to help you identify where in the passage you need to go back to in order to answer a given question. your skeletal sketch at least needs to contain enough information to help you find the sentence(s) you need to re-read to answer the question, but any work you do beyond that in taking notes is probably not going to reduce the work needed when you get to the questions. instead, it will probably only waste even more time. you should focus instead on getting a good skeletal sketch in place and then getting faster at processing the details in the couple of sentences you need to look at in order to answer the question. some passages are just more dense than others and will take more time, so that's why you need to focus on minimizing the time taken in creating your skeletal sketch..

[mehdi.kanoun]

Could you please explaine the 2 nd question why it is not E?

Many thanks

[sree.kurup]

The passage mentions: women had to find ingenious legal ways to run and finance organized philanthropy.
There is no mention of the "growth" of organized philanthropy being attributed to the cult of female domesticity.

[kvitkod]

Please explain, why B is wrongin the third question. This answer relates to the first paragraph ("belief in the innate moral superiority of the women") and to the second one ("the very real authority and privilege that some women commanded" AND "But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power"). Moreover this answer captures the hole idea of the passage.

Which of the following best summarizes the main point of the passage?

(A) The identification of femininity with morality promoted the notion of women's moral purity while excluding women from positions of authority in their communities.
(B) The belief in women's innate moral superiority allowed women to exercise political power without participating in partisan politics.
(C) The cult of female domesticity helped some women to gain power and privilege but kept most women confined to the domestic sphere.
(D) The ideology of female benevolence empowered women in the realm of social activism but placed limits on their direct political power.
(E) The idealization of female altruism enabled women to engage in philanthropic activities but prevented them from managing money and property.

[RonPurewal]

Please explain, why B is wrongin the third question. This answer relates to the first paragraph ("belief in the innate moral superiority of the women") and to the second one ("the very real authority and privilege that some women commanded" AND "But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power"). Moreover this answer captures the hole idea of the passage.

that answer choice actually contradicts the passage. in fact, it contradicts one of the sentences that you have actually quoted:
"But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied a moral purity that precluded participation in the messy world of partisan politics."
--> i.e., women DID NOT have political power; they could not even attempt to gain that kind of power.
according to the passage, women had certain other types of authority and influence, but not political power.

[jp.jprasanna]

note the red part:

1. According to the passage, the ideology of female benevolence was consistent with women taking part in each of the following spheres of activity EXCEPT

(A) organized philanthropy
(B) domestic life
(C) electoral politics
(D) fund-raising for worthy causes
(E) social work

"consistent with" is a much weaker condition than you apparently think. it doesn't necessarily have to mean "agrees with" or "similar to" -- it just means "doesn't contradict".

for instance, if i'm a gmat instructor, that's consistent with my being, say, an amateur bodybuilder or a model -- even though these two things have nothing at all to do with each other -- because they don't contradict each other. (by contrast, if i weigh 500 lbs, then that's inconsistent with being an amateur bodybuilder or model, since those two things rather directly exclude one another.)

so, you need to find direct evidence that the "female benevolence" thing actually contradicts one of these five options.
that evidence is here:
But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied a moral purity that precluded participation in the messy world of partisan politics

that's (c).

Hi Ron please help me understand this question better. I have seen similar questions from other passages as well.

According to the passage, the ideology of female benevolence was consistent with women taking part in each of the following spheres of activity EXCEPT

(A) organized philanthropy
(B) domestic life
(C) electoral politics
(D) fund-raising for worthy causes
(E) social work

this question asks us "the ideology of female benevolence was consistent with women taking part in each of the following spheres of activity Except"

As women did not get or even even attempted to gain political power. So this is in line with the idea of female benevolence right?

I marked A as the lines in the passage reads
"in the face of legal limitations on their right to control money and property, women had to find ingenious legal ways to run and finance organized philanthropy." and "The sentimentalized concept of female benevolence bore little resemblance to women's actual work"

So here the actual work is also "organized philanthropy"

Please help me correct my line of reasoning.

Cheers

[tim]

Ron demonstrated a way to use a contradiction to prove that C is the correct answer. Have you been able to find a similar contradiction to prove A? If not, there is no reason to pick A..

[manhhiep2509]

The identification of femininity with morality and a belief in the innate moral superiority of women were fundamental to the cult of female domesticity in the nineteenth-century United States. Ironically, this ideology of female benevolence empowered women in the realm of social activism, enabling them to escape the confines of their traditional domestic spheres and to enter prisons, hospitals, battlefields, and slums. By following this path, some women came to wield considerable authority in the distribution of resources and services in their communities.

The sentimentalized concept of female benevolence bore little resemblance to women's actual work, which was decidedly unsentimental and businesslike, in that it involved chartering societies, raising money, and paying salaries. Moreover, in the face of legal limitations on their right to control money and property, women had to find ingenious legal ways to run and finance organized philanthropy. In contrast to the day-to-day reality of this work, the idealized image of female benevolence lent a sentimental and gracious aura of altruism to the very real authority and privilege that some women commanded--which explains why some women activists clung tenaciously to this ideology. But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied a moral purity that precluded participation in the messy world of partisan politics.

Hi instructors.

What is the purpose of the author when he starts the second paragraph the two sentences?
The first sentence seems to reinforce the irony mentioned in the first paragraph, but I cannot understand why the author says the second sentence.

What is the main idea of the second paragraph?
I got lost when trying to link the ideas of the two paragraphs.

The sentimentalized concept of female benevolence bore little resemblance to women's actual work, which was decidedly unsentimental and businesslike, in that it involved chartering societies, raising money, and paying salaries. Moreover, in the face of legal limitations on their right to control money and property, women had to find ingenious legal ways to run and finance organized philanthropy.

[RonPurewal]

If I just spat out answers to these questions, I wouldn't be helping you very much.

For each of these two issues, what was your thought process?

* What's your understanding of the second sentence of paragraph #2?
See whether you can summarize it in simpler words.
If you can, what's your impression of how it relates? If this were a speech or a conversation, what would be your sense of why the speaker would say this stuff?

* Similarly, what's your understanding of the main idea?
If someone were saying all of this stuff really fast, what would you write down?

[NL]

Dear Instructors,

I’ll present my approach to this passage and then, I have a question at the end.
(RC is my weakest area in GMAT, because my English is poor and also I’m a dyslexic person).

I. Reading:

1st paragraph:

- 1st sentence: it talks about an idea about women.
- 2nd & 3rd: the idea of B ("female benevolence"- I didn’t know its meaning at the time I read) helped them escape "home" and do something outside.

--> Predicting: the author may talk more about what women did next.

2nd paragraph:

- 1st sentence: too complex, but talks about details of women’s activities: "societies, raising money, and paying salaries."
- 2nd: more activities such as "run and finance organized philanthropy."
- 3rd: get 0
- 4th: "clinging" Idea of B "prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power" because of something...

--> Overall: idea of B freed women but also limited them.

II. Answering questions:
(I just talk about my initial thought when reading the questions, before checking choices.)

1. According to the passage, the ideology of female benevolence was consistent with women taking part in each of the following spheres of activity EXCEPT ...

--> the question requires to find an activity that women didn’t do.

2. Information in the passage suggests that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements concerning the cult of female domesticity?

--> It asks about author's opinion about "the cult of female domesticity": there are 2 places need to be checked: after "ironically" and "clinging".

3. Which of the following best summarizes the main point of the passage?

--> Overall: idea of B freed women but also limited women.


My question is: should I continue to practice in this way? Or should I have to "put" something more in my practice?