#19 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[lday4]

Since the last paragraph of passage A reveals the author's opinion on how a focus on gender instead of individual women is potentially detrimental, E seemed too positive of an answer to me because it says successfully. I thought it would have been perfect if successfully had been removed. C seemed to be a better choice because it presented a more neural attitude in the shift discussed in passage A. Can you shed some light on why E is better than C?

Thanks!

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi lday,

The problem with C is that the second passage doesn't actually seem to suggest any political influence for women. There isn't much chance the author of the first passage would read that into the second passage, because there's just no place we can find it there.

E, on the other hand, seems to fit into lines 18-26 or so of the first passage. The other answers can pretty definitely be ruled out, so we're left with E, which doesn't seem perfect but is clearly better than the others.

[NeverMissing]

I also chose answer choice C for this question because I thought that I did see evidence in passage B that it placed attention on the political influence of women, thus illustrating the current trend in historical scholarship of doing so. I see in the explanation above that the testmakers believe there is no evidence supporting answer choice B in the passage, but I thought lines 44-50 could be read as direct evidence that the passage places attention on the political influence of women.

Phrases like women's "good behavior was partly responsible for the heath of the state" and "gender roles assigned to women were becoming...more visible and more politicized" read to me as direct textual evidence that the passage is placing increased attention on the political influence of women.

Since answer choice B is incorrect, these parts of the passage must NOT be placing increased attention on the political influence of women, but it would be really helpful to have someone break down much of what was said in lines 44-50 and explain how these lines cannot be reasonably interpreted as evidence that the passage is paying attention to the political influence of women.

I am having trouble not reading it that way, so any additional insight or perspective would be appreciated.

[Adam Tyson]

But does Author A believe that there is such a trend as described in answer B? Author A tells us that there is less focus on "women" now and more focus on "gender". A study of "women" is, according to Author A, now viewed as "too narrow" and is "often dismissed".

It doesn't matter so much that we can view Passage B as being at least partly about the political influence of women (in ancient Rome). What matters is whether Author A would agree that this focus is part of a current trend in historical scholarship. It seems that Author A is saying that this is not the trend at all, but rather the opposite is true, that women are, in the current trend, taking a back seat to gender studies.

There's the issue, folks. It's not what Passage B says - it's about what Author A would say about Passage B.

I hope that helps! Keep up the good work!

[ksikanon]

Hi there,

While I understand why (E) is the correct answer in this case, I want to make sure I understand why I can rule out (A). For me, (A) seems to apply to Passage B, as the evaluation of women in the domestic sphere in Passage B seems to overlook the particular ways that women engaged their worlds. Could that not provide the basis for an argument that the integration of women's history into the historical mainstream is far from complete?

To counter, I think this answer is wrong because of its scope and the specific words used in the answer choice. The more I think about it, the more I think my response above includes too many logical leaps to be considered as a contender answer choice. Furthermore, Passage B could actually prove to show the opposite of my argument above: the fact that scholars are studying the domesticity of women during Augustus's reign may, in fact, strengthen the idea that the integration of women's history into the historical mainstream is far from complete.

Thoughts on this?

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi ksikanon!

the evaluation of women in the domestic sphere in Passage B seems to overlook the particular ways that women engaged their worlds. Could that not provide the basis for an argument that the integration of women's history into the historical mainstream is far from complete?

That sounds like a good argument to me, and I would love to read an article that explored that issue.

Unfortunately, the author of Passage A is not concerned with the currently incomplete "integration of women's history into the historical mainstream." I see no evidence that Passage A believes that this is an issue, so it would be a mistake to say that the author of Passage A would respond to Passage B in this way.

Remember that you are being asked how the first author would respond, not how you would respond.

Furthermore, Passage B could actually prove to show the opposite of my argument above: the fact that scholars are studying the domesticity of women during Augustus's reign may, in fact, strengthen the idea that the integration of women's history into the historical mainstream is far from complete.

Since this is just one example of a historical work, and it does not discuss other historical works, we can't make any broad generalizations from it. This is mere speculation.

[mollylynch]

Is E correct because of support in passage B, such as, "gender roles assigned to women were becoming at once more constrained but also more visible and more politicized" ? In terms of the culture aspect: how Augustus placed emphasis on domestication of women relates to their role in society/culture.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Exactly Molly! The discussion of gender roles in the second paragraph of Passage B connects the information in Passage B to the ideas about gender studies and gender roles from Passage A. In Passage B, gender and gender roles play an important part in Augustian political life. Looking at the gender role, as opposed to the specific individual's contributions, connects exactly to the ideas from Passage A.

Great work!