Gender and the public sphere: Alternative forms of integration in nineteenth-century America

This paper intends to evaluate two competing models of multicultural integr ation in stratified societies: the "multiple publics" model of Nancy Fraser and the "fragmented public sphere" model of Jeffrey Alexander. Fraser and Alexander disagree oil whether or not claims to a general "common good" or "common humanity" are democratically legitimate in light of systemic inequa lity. Fraser rejects the idea that cultural integration can be democratic i n conditions of social inequality, while Alexander accepts it and tries to explain how it may be realized. In order to address this debate, I analyze the cultural foundations of the female-led, maternally themed social moveme nts of nineteenth-century America. The language of these movements supports Alexander's position over Fraser's, though it also suggests that Alexander is mistaken in the specifics of his cultural theory of a general and democ ratic "common good." While Alexander's model of integration is structured u niquely by what he and Philip Smith have called "the discourse of civil soc iety," the evidence suggests a distinctly alternative, equally democratic c ode at play in this case, which I have labeled a discourse of affection and compassion.