Introduction Option 2

Today, modern scientific and religious ideologies are often seen as contradicting each other. Has it always been this way? A look back to the 1800s reveals that the influence of religion persisted even during the advent of new scientific discoveries. This is especially true when it comes to notions of gender. This exhibition uses the lens of gender roles in order to answer how the influence of scientific and medical popular thought combined with existing Christian religious ideas from the 1830s–1890s contributing to the reinforcement and reformulation of gender roles and sexual freedom. An examination of biographies, pamphlets, medical manuals, and etiquette books, during four major time periods—Age of Reform, Antebellum Era, Health Movement and Gilded Age—shed light on the progressive and conversely, stagnant, gender expectations.