Barbara Welter's The Cult Of True Womanhood

Throughout history there has been a strong hold on women to adhere to the culture of domesticity. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this value system was engrained in the class system in the United States. According to Barbara Welter in her article The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860 this system of values defined a woman’s role in regards to the virtues of her actions within the family system. A woman was to be submissive, pure, and pious. She also had to fulfill her domestic duties to the family and community. The women of a community were the connections to faith and family. They had to uphold the standards of their religion and be steadfast in their faith. Having a pious presence in her family and community also built up a woman’s self-worth as she was an active member with the church. Her Christianity offered her praise and respect from her fellow citizens and her family. This social order is presented in Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter written in 1850. Hester Prynne, the heroine of the novel could possibly be viewed as one of the very first feminist in literature. She defies the power of the Puritan society and from her rebellious actions; the reader can see an emerging feminist consciousness within Hester, which is then passed along to her daughter Pearl.

Keep in mind, during this period of time, women were seem as individual who should learn how to be a good mother and wife. This act of

The female role was not greatly affected by reign of Queen Victoria, as the role of a woman was at home, being the perfect wife and mother to her husband and children, respectively. At a young age, women were groomed and taught only the essentials, such as being “innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion…” as well as “being able to sing, play an instrument and [to] speak a little French or Italian” (Thomas, Pauline Weston). These qualities were taught to women so that they may serve their husbands and create an atmosphere of comfort for her husband and family. A woman was not to create problems and to be able to run the house smoothly, so that the man may focus on his work and be able to return to his home and relax.

Masculinity didn’t do a good job of attaining the hoped-for standards, as they didn’t have other equally profound consequences for American middle-class culture at this time. It justified the exclusion of women from the world as acceptable to both women and men at this time, and it cultivated strong bonds around women as well. They in fact shared the biological experiences central to their definition as women and spoke the same language of virtue and piety, which essentially means that they instilled a awareness of a set of common goals for them and experiences present for them, which had values specific to women, and distinct from those of men. The key to this was the extensive networks of female friends that were present during this time period for these women. Since women were supposedly better than men during this time, it was feasible and easy to believe that women were obliged and privileged to work together and help other women, who were fallen, and poor, who were having some sort of trouble during this time period as a result of the society that they were present in during this time period. Southern white women during this time were aware of the ideology of domesticity during this time, and they would try to implement it and its teachings for their lives, but their expectations were frequently articulated during this time period. There was little industrialization, domestication, urbanization, immigration, and therefore, social dislocation present during

181). Religion was integrated into their life. As the Industrial Age progressed, the strong religious values weakened through generations. “Female education should be preeminently religious” (p.182). The woman was the primary teacher of her child and was expected to teach themselves religion and be able to teach their children as well. “One reason religion was valued was that it did not take a woman away from her “proper sphere, her home.” (p. 181) Women only completed grade school and had many opportunities to read the bible so they were also able to preach family values, help the poor and contribute to stopping slavery. Devotion to religion was expected. Welter explains that a woman’s brain is capable of comprehending religion even though it is not visible. As the Industrial Age progressed, the strong religious values weakened through generations. Submission, another principle, kept women from voicing her opinion when having a discussion with their husbands or telling their husbands to terminate an annoying idiosyncrasy. “Wives were advised to do their best to reform men, but if they couldn’t, to give up gracefully. If any habit of his annoyed me, I spoke of it once or twice calmly, then bore it quietly.”(p. 186) She would reinforce her submissiveness by wearing tight corsets which would limit her breathing and physical mobility and remain uncomfortable. They were expected to be subservient to men as well as homemakers. “In Women of

The next requirement for being a “true woman” was submissiveness. According to society men were superior to women by “God’s appointment.” If they acted otherwise they “tampered with the order of the Universe” (Welter 105). A “true woman” would not question this idea because she already understands her place. Grace Greenwood explained to the women of the Nineteenth Century, “True feminine genius is ever timid, doubtful, and clingingly dependant; a perpetual childhood.” Even in the case of an abusive husband, women were sometimes told to stay quiet

During the early 1800's women were stuck in the Cult of Domesticity. Women had been issued roles as the moral keepers for societies as well as the nonworking house-wives for families. Also, women were considered unequal to their male companions legally and socially. However, women’s efforts during the 1800’s were effective in challenging traditional intellectual, social, economical, and political attitudes about a women’s place in society.

Thesis: A “true women” in the 19th Century was one who was domestic, religious, and chaste. These were virtues established by men but enforced and taught by other women. Women were also told that they were inferior to men and they should accept it and be grateful that someone just loved them.

Before the war, women were bound to their homes. They were held to the “cult of domesticity” and were “hostage of the home” (Brown). Their primary job was to devote themselves to keeping a clean and comfortable

Prior to the Roaring Twenties, women were expected to perform traditional roles: cooking meals, weaving clothes, raising their children, and doing all the different chores around the house. Women had very few privileges and liberties; they were taught to live their lives very conservatively, to be modest and innocent, having high levels of morality. The figure of the woman was actually the status quo, so they were meant to be demure; they had no prerogative to anything in society. It is not erroneous to believe that females were so injuncted to live by the standards of society that new generations availed the 1920’s. The dramatic social, political, and economic changes during the 1920’s were the perfect time to hostile the quondam virtues of

Because motherhood was, and is still today, considered very important to being a “good woman” it is often used by women as a source of power and authority. In Sundiata, Sogolon’s motherhood gives her a voice and the power and authority to protect her son until he can return to Mali as King. In a different way, Margery Kempe removed herself from her position as mother and wife and journeyed to become closer with God, though this may seem like something that would cause a woman to lose power, it gave her authority because people believed that no woman who had abandoned her position as mother could speak the word of God so well, and that she must just be the mouthpiece of God.

The question arises as to what a true woman was in the Antebellum Era of the United States. In Barbara Welters, “The Cult of True Womanhood,” she states that all along the pre-Civil War period, people believed that in order to be a “true woman,” women had to instill in themselves “four cardinal virtues––piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (21). Women were judged on whether or not they possessed these expected societal values. If a woman failed to adhere to society’s guidelines, the woman would be shunned by the community. These virtues reigned over a woman's worth and dictated her place in the community––if she possessed all, she was considered a woman, but if she

There were set roles; these roles made the gender dependent on one another. Married women were to cook, clean the house, have

Women were seen as having more remarkable moral influence on the family as a whole. Because of this, women were designated as the caretaker, and child-rearing became their

The 1940's woman was supposed to upkeep the home and act as polished trophies for their husbands.