I believe one of the most widely recognized problems of an attempted utopia like New Harmony was the tendency to invite everyone of all classes to join, then finding the harmonious union impossible. Although New Harmony was propagandized as a symbol for equality of the sexes, its women had different opinions on what the community actually offered to them. Some women found new freedoms but most of them experienced increased demands on their timeworn domestic services. Some women, especially those from working-class backgrounds, felt that their situation was bettered by the move, however, the majority of the women often felt betrayed by false promises of equality that brought them mostly demeaning labor. It was difficult to meet the wants and expectations of so many different people.

I think the take home from this failure of unification in the society directly parallels all of the other utopian societies we have read about. Utopian thinkers wanted to be able to create a society in which all races, classes and genders came together and lived harmoniously. Unfortunately, as we have seen all too often during our class research, bringing all of these different people together, with completely different backgrounds, initiated the breakdown of the society.

One connection I could make between Robert Owen’s New Harmony and Thomas More’s Utopia, although fairly unrelated to topic of unity above, is how the traditional view of gender roles seemed to permeate the thinking of these male utopian leaders. Thomas More referred to women, bluntly, as “the weaker sex” (More 60), and gave them more simple jobs that required less strength, such as weaving, while the men passed their time with carpentry or metal work. Although a minor example, Thomas More degraded women by providing them with smaller tasks, although most of the women were just as able to perform the tasks that men did. Although they claimed to be forward thinking and driven by peace and equality, many utopian thinkers did not consider the lives of women to be as important as the lives of men.

Work Cited:

More, T. (2001). Utopia (C. H. Miller, Trans.). New Haven: Yale University Press.