Women & benevolence - URGENTLY need help!

[rohit_gmat]

Hi All,

Urgently need help on this one... Please give explanations on why each answer choice is incorrect/correct..



Thanks in advance !!!!!!

PS Have my exam in a few days

[Geva@EconomistGMAT]

your answer is in the last sentence of the second paragraph: "clinging to this morality also prevented these women from even attempting to gain political power..."
Thus, the ideology of female benevolence is not consistent with electoral politics, as politics are considered "too dirty" for these fine creatures. The answer is C.

It's a tough question, as the other answer choices are all over the place - you really need to read most (if not all) of the passage to find them. Organized philanthropy and fund raising are in the 2nd are 3rd sentences of the 2nd paragraph. I took "social activism", mentioned in the 2nd sentence of the 1st para., to mean "social work".
My only real trap was "domestic life" - the entire passage discusses how women used this ideology to get out of the domestic sphere and into other places. I finally picked it up in the first sentence of the first paragraph: "the identification of femininity with morality....were essential to the cult of female domesticity". the idea that women are moral and benevolent creatures was MEANT to keep them at home, doing domestic work. Ironically, the same ideology served to get them out of there, but it can definitely be said that the ideal was consistent with women taking part in the domestic life, so B is definitely not the answer. The only place where the ideology actually prevents a woman from working in a particular sphere is the political, as shown by the last sentence of the passage.

[rohit_gmat]

your answer is in the last sentence of the second paragraph: "clinging to this morality also prevented these women from even attempting to gain political power..."
Thus, the ideology of female benevolence is not consistent with electoral politics, as politics are considered "too dirty" for these fine creatures. The answer is C.

Thanks!

I reason I took C out was because the passage (in the last sentence of the second paragraph) goes like : "But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied..."
The way I understood it is that they did not really achieve "true" political power but that doesn't mean that they didn't manage to get into politics at all.
Is my thinking correct here? Was it just a matter of choosing the 'best' answer choice?

[Geva@EconomistGMAT]

your answer is in the last sentence of the second paragraph: "clinging to this morality also prevented these women from even attempting to gain political power..."
Thus, the ideology of female benevolence is not consistent with electoral politics, as politics are considered "too dirty" for these fine creatures. The answer is C.

Thanks!

I reason I took C out was because the passage (in the last sentence of the second paragraph) goes like : "But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied..."
The way I understood it is that they did not really achieve "true" political power but that doesn't mean that they didn't manage to get into politics at all.
Is my thinking correct here? Was it just a matter of choosing the 'best' answer choice?

1) Read the last sentence carefully - it specifically says that women didn't even ATTEMPT to achieve true political power - meaning that they didn't even try to get into politics.

2) Also, a step that many people neglect to consciously do is to translate the question stem itself: make sure that you explain to yourself in your own words, what is it that the question wants, BEFORE you rush back to the passage or the answer choices. In this case, the question stem asks which of the answer choices is the ideology of female benevolence inconsistent with. In simple words, what type of work does the ideology of female benevolence prevents women from entering? With this in mind, the last sentence should set you on the path of looking for an answer choice that says "politics" in some way: This should at least put C in the running and avoid its outright elimination, as this is indeed an example of a sphere where the ideology itself prevented women from operating - politics was just deemed too dirt for the ideal, benevolent woman.