The Cult Of True Womanhood In The 19th Century

During the Antebellum age of America, new values and ideals began to arise. These ideals were reflected in the households of middle class citizens and grouped together to create the “Cult of Domesticity.” The cult helped form the foundation of female inferiority in the male dominated society. As “slaves” to the home, women were to uphold morals that were no longer relevant in the new industrialized world. The ideas that led to this treatment of women were drawn from religion, “scientific studies”, and the Industrial Revolution.

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.

The Cult of Domesticity is an ideology that women and men have separate spheres. As time progresses spheres change but it is the

The article, The Cult of Womanhood: 1820 - 1860 written by Barbara Welter discusses the philosophy towards women in America during the mid 19th century. A set of demands and expectations based upon four principles: piety, purity, submission and domesticity were placed on women as well as certain behavioral expectations left 19th century women feeling guilty. It also left women feeling this way during the industrialization period as well as having a huge presence of incompatibility with society. Welter shares her viewpoint that the Cult of Womanhood was an attempt to preserve pre modern values in the industrial age. Men held a dominant place in society and continued to prevent new opportunities for women to explore. Narrow minded

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

“The modest virgin, the prudent wife, and the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romances, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver, or their eyes” (Wakefield.) This quote shows how women were looked at in the nineteenth century. This goes back to the concept during that time that women can not have an urge to have sex. If they so happened to have an urge to have sex they were compared to as prostitutes. In this quote they compared a virgin to the highest of things but the next sentence goes along with making her husband and children happy. Women are always looked at as a caretaker or someone there to make their husbands happy. Never

During the middle of the nineteenth century, a so-called "cult of domesticity" arose in the United States and Great Britain predicated upon a number of assumptions regarding the proper role of women in society, and it served to protect male hegemony during a period of historical upheaval. According to Godey's Lady's Book, one of the most successful magazines of the period, "the perfection of womanhood... is the wife and mother, the center of the family, that magnet that draws man to the domestic altar, that makes him a civilized being... the wife is truly the light of the home." A woman's appropriate role was that of a wife and mother, and they were expected to follow certain cardinal virtues that contributed to the perpetuation of this role, which formed the basis of the cult's ideological work. The cult of domesticity was an ideological construct which served to support the dominant authorities of the time, and only by examining the cult of domesticity (and the "angel of the house" which served as its focus) as points of intersection between religious, political, and economic power can one begin to understand how the role of women in the nineteenth century was regulated in response to historical developments that threatened male hegemony, namely, nationalist anxiety following the American Revolution and the ascendance of capitalism as the overarching political and economic structure.

During the early 1800s into the nineteenth century it was believed that men and women came from two separate spheres. These spheres influenced the way gender roles were shaped and perceived. Suggesting that women belonged in the household, apart of the private sphere and men belonged in the economic world, apart of the public sphere. Men and women were understood to be polar opposites and because of this, women were oppressed. Female sexuality was defined as “passionlessness,” and only for the purpose of reproduction. We learn that women were considered “voracious” for expressing their sexuality however, men were encouraged to express their sexuality as part of maintaining power, prestige, and masculinity. (Cott, 1978, 222). Men

A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal

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.

The cult of domesticity brought a new view on women’s role and associated virtue with the moral quality of a woman. Virtue for a woman represented her worth which was measured by her innocence and beauty. At the cost of being dependent on a man a woman was provided with protection and financial stability. Through cult of domesticity some women were able to avoid the disadvantages of being a female in the work force. At the time all that was available to women were low paying jobs like domestic servants, factory workers, and seamstresses. In return all they would have to do is fulfill their obligations to their husbands which was to provide love, companionship, and provide a get way from the stress of the work day. Women being able to stay at

In the mid to late nineteenth century, America was full of potential. Settlers were cultivating the west, blacks that were once captive were no longer enslaved, and a woman’s role in society was undergoing a transformation. The reality of this all was, blacks were not considered equal status with whites, American Indians were being pushed out west and women were still considered second-class citizens.

Gender roles were sharply defined in the 19th century. Women were expected to stay at home and carry out the domestic duties as well as taking care of the children and educate them and provide a peaceful home for their husband. Women were seen as loving and caring. On the other hand, men were expected to work and earn money for the family. They would fight wars and were seen as strong and powerful. Men had more freedom and rights, such as the right to vote, than women in the 19th century. Society had created two completely separate spheres. In the medical field, men were doctors. There were laws in many states, such as, that prohibited women from becoming doctors. Women, who decided to practice medicine in the 19th century had to struggle with much opposition because it went against prevailing ideas about women’s role in society. Women belonged in the private and domestic sphere. Men belonged to competitive and immoral public sphere of industry and commerce. The women in medicine would face accusations that they were abandoning their sphere and threatening society. Due to these arguments and the fear of economic competition from female practitioner, male medical schools and hospitals denied women access to institutions. However, Elizabeth Blackwell, changed this idea of separate spheres when she decided to take on the medical field and become a doctor. Although Elizabeth Black had a natural aversion to the medical field, her

The standards for a 19th century women were extremely high as the sexual double standards viewed women as passive and dependant. In the 19th century there were gender roles where men went off to work, women were expected to stay at home all day, taking care of their children and house. Women must be accompanied by a man outside of the house, thus Hedda is stuck at home almost all the time living a very boring life. She likes to spend money and even though she comes from a wealthy family she has no money of her own, filling the emptiness she feels with materialistic items. Hedda is extremely afraid of scandals and has to keep up appearances. Separate spheres saw women as physically weaker but morally stronger, thus Hedda has to be calm and collected

Most women were tied to the home in the 18th Century. Modesty had become an important part of family and society life. Women were considered to have a natural maternal instinct and a natural devotion to family. Attempting to leave this role of motherhood was seen as monstrous and unwomanly by society (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011) Women expected to stay in the private sphere. This hiding from the outside world was an attempt to protect the purity of women reiterating that women are the weaker sex and must be protected. This philosophy is exemplified in an 18th century metaphor, “Women is a plant which in it’s own green house seclusion will put forth all its brilliant