SOURCE: "Sarah J. Hale, Selective Promoter of Her Sex" in A Living of Words: American Women in Print Culture, edited by Susan Albertine, University of Tennessee Press, 1995, pp. 18-34.

In the following excerpt, Bardes and Gossett explore Hale's views on women's roles, especially as reflected in her Woman's Record.

Interpretations of Hale's life and career have varied widely, depending largely upon the period and upon the interpreter's attitude toward powerful women. Yet as we survey Hale's works, the most consistent element, the invariable factor whether one considers Hale radical or conventional in her activities, is her dedication to the promotion of her own sex. Within her own ideologically inflected definition of what was appropriate, she unwaveringly favored women's activities and, specifically, their literary achievements. These ideals are continuously expressed from her earliest editorials in the Ladies ' Magazine to her final revision of Woman's Record, her encyclopedia of...