Replicating the gender dynamics of his parents
Daniels's relationship with his wife reflected the lessons he learned from observing the dynamics between his mother and father. He adopted his parents' observance of gender roles in his own marriage.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Jonathan Worth Daniels, March 9-11, 1977. Interview A-0313. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- CHARLES EAGLES:
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Did that leave your mother in charge of the home, then?
- JONATHAN WORTH DANIELS:
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I would say this: my mother was always in charge of the home.
- CHARLES EAGLES:
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Oh, was she the one that raised you more than your father?
- JONATHAN WORTH DANIELS:
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Oh, yes. My father was the court of last resort, not that we ever
appealed to it, but mother did the whipping and the feeding and the
buying and the housekeeping. My father, I'm very much like him. We turn
over our personal lives to our wives, really, almost completely, and so
did my father. But she, of course, always tried to do what he would like
and so forth. But the home was the seat of the matriarch, not the
patriarch.
- CHARLES EAGLES:
-
Who do you think had a greater influence on you, then, growing up?
- JONATHAN WORTH DANIELS:
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I don't know.
- CHARLES EAGLES:
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It would almost seem in one sense that she might have, because she was
there all the time, but if he was the final authority...
- JONATHAN WORTH DANIELS:
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He wasn't the final authority in any sense that we would appeal from
Mother. No, sir, we wouldn't appeal from Mother.
- CHARLES EAGLES:
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[Laughter]
