The reversal of traditional gender traits in Beecher’s parents did not disrupt their duties as
mother and father; rather, they demonstrated the equality of condition between men and women.
The fact that Roxana was less affectionate than Lyman did not make her any less of a mother; in
fact, her efficient fulfillment of domestic duties made her a successful mother. Her parents also
subverted traditional intellectual characteristics associated with men and women, as she wrote,
“my father was imaginative, impulsive, and averse to hard study; while my mother was calm and
self-possessed, and solved mathematical problems, not only for practical purposes, but because
she enjoyed that kind of mental effort.”10 Where women were expected to prevail in the
emotional realm and men in the logical, the opposite was true for Lyman and Roxana. For
example, “in sudden emergencies she [Roxana] had more strength and self-possession than my
father.”11 Lyman was more emotionally expressive; Catharine recalled that his “discipline was