Cover -- Front Matter -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgments -- Explanatory Note -- Chapter Int-coda -- Introduction Woman as she Should Be -- What Are Conduct Manuals? -- Everything Is a Conduct Manual -- This Book, However, Does Not Cover Everything -- Can Conduct Manuals Be Trusted? -- Women: By Accident or Design? -- Be a Woman -- Reality and Desire -- Notes -- Chapter 1 A Good Woman is a Godly Woman, Obviously -- Yes, This Will Be on the Test -- Instructive Language -- Too Much Fun Is Bad for Women -- Lucky Girl-Your Husband Knows Everything! -- Ladies Behaving Virtuously -- A Testing Society -- Notes -- Chapter 2 Conduct For Those Who are not Queen -- The Trouble with Queens -- Being Bad and Looking Good -- Need a New Pet? Try a Woman! -- A Royal Education -- The Invisible Woman -- The Curse of Beauty -- Marriage Makes Love Possible -- Woman under Construction -- Creative Differences -- Ruling Women -- Notes -- Chapter 3 Look But Don't Talk: Reflections of the Ideal -- Mirror, Mirror-Who's the Quietest of Them All? -- Help, Police! My Neighbor Is Scolding Me! -- The Looking Glass of a Woman's Life -- Clothes Are To Be Endured, Not Enjoyed -- No Talk, All Action -- Talking Is an Indoor Sport -- Why Be Good? Because You're Worth It -- Beyond the Looking Glass -- Beyond the Front Door -- The Mirror Never Lies … -- Notes -- Chapter 4 Playing The Part as Nature Intended -- Always Have a Wish List -- Love, Marriage and the Law -- Act Natural -- Why Read Novels? Get Married Instead! -- Nature vs. Education -- If You Only Have One Book in Your Library … -- Home Is Where the Woman Is -- That's Entertainment? -- What Men Want -- Playing Dumb -- Secret Love -- Do as I Say, Not as I Do -- Birds of a Feather Stay Home Together -- A New Old-Fashioned Girl -- Playing with the Ideal -- Notes.

Chapter 5 Victoria's Angels -- Men Work, Women Comfort -- Women on the Move -- Too Many Women -- The Victorians before Victoria -- Too Much Studying Is (Still) Not Feminine -- Worthy Women -- A Library of One's Own -- "Sensible, Though Obvious" -- "Spinster" Is Not a Dirty Word -- Don't Be Like Brunhild -- But, Really, Isn't It Better To Be Married? -- Morals and Manners -- Notes -- Chapter 6 Suffrage, Little Wives and Career Girls -- "I'm No Suburban Bridge Player-I'm a Newspaperman!" -- Votes for Women -- Want a Job? Be a Mother! -- What's in a Name? Etiquette vs. Conduct -- Good Manners = Good Woman -- How Women Work -- Which Professions Befit a Woman? -- From Desks to Driving -- The Same, but Different -- What Is Expected -- Virtue, with an Attitude -- Outspoken, but Not Outrageous -- Men Have Their Uses After All -- The Only Difference Is the Airplane -- Caution: Girls at Work -- No Job for a Woman -- Notes -- Chapter 7 Feminism Changes Everything, Right? Right?? -- I'm Not a Feminist, but … -- Well, It's Complicated … -- "Wife" Is Still a Career -- There's No Crying in Business -- Help Yourself -- The Oldest Rules in the Book -- Marriage Is All That Matters -- My Unfair Lady -- Good Manners = Good Money -- Jane Austen Is Dead. Long Live Jane Austen. -- It's Good to Be Bad -- Modesty Is the New Black -- Not Modest, and Proud of It -- Notes -- Coda An Ideal End -- Life and Death -- A Custom of Injustice -- An Ideal End -- Notes -- End Matter -- References -- Database and Ebook Resources -- Primary Sources -- Secondary Sources -- Index.

"Conduct Books and the History of the Ideal Woman" examines six centuries of conduct manuals and other instructive writing, analyzing the history of gendered expectations that have been debated in print from the fourteenth century and continue to influence our present thinking about women's roles and abilities.

Electronic reproduction

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2020. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.