Virtues Of Women In The 19th Century Essay

In 17th century Euro-America Puritan society believed that men played a patriarchal role upon women, and that this role was instituted by God and nature. The seniority of men over women lay within both the household and the public sphere. The household, immediate family living in the same dwelling was subject to the male as head figure of the house. The public sphere also known as the social life within the Puritan community consisted of two echelons. These echelons consisted of formal and informal public. The formal public consisted of woman and indentured servants. Women were to stay within the informal public and stay in the shadows of the men. The government held large ties with the church in the 17th century. Though women were

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

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

Women’s issues during slavery and even into the Reconstruction Era were not held as top priorities within the social structure of life during those times. The main political and social issues were within the male spectrum, and therefore left women’s rights and values in second place, behind men. Within the nineteenth century, there were four specific characteristics that society deemed should be associated with a woman; piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. However, this was not the case when it came to black women. They were not able to exemplify the expected worldview of womanhood due to their circumstances.

But now, due to the rise of the corporate office, many other opportunities had opened up. Typists, filing clerks, stenographers, and even some secretarial roles all became possibilities for these ambitious young women. All these job openings helped support a great number of young women who had fled the poverty of the countryside, which in comparison to mills or farming, was an improvement. The 1920s saw the empowerment of women, as they began to challenge the traditional ideas of women’s role in society. However, although the increase in female employment was expanding, there were very clear

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

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.

In the early nineteenth century, women were expected to be, “‘angels in the house,’ loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste wives, mothers and daughters or they are… ultimately doomed” (King et al. 23). Women of this time were supposed to be domestic creatures and not tap so far into their intellectual abilities (King et al.). The role of women in the nineteenth century is described:

American women’s expectations in the 19th century began to rapidly change because of the evolution of industrialism. Women and their children were becoming the main workers for piece work. The cult of the “True Womanhood” brought the idea of piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness was a part of who they were and their lifestyles as middle-class women. It provided ongoing training with advice through the “Godey’s Magazine.” The working class women could not hold themselves to these standards for several reasons. Industrialization and the rise of the middle class impacted expectations of American women by enabling them to contribute to a capitalist society. However, capitalism created distinct class divisions that prevented working class women from achieving the ideals of feminity. Working class women did not have the same privileges as the middle class because they would have to spend the majority of their daily lives working.

In Barbara Welter’s “The Cult of True Womanhood,” it is clear that in the 1800’s women were suppose to be nothing if not a mold of societies image. The four virtues that Welter says a “true woman” should have consist of: religion or pity, purity, submission, and domesticity. All four of these virtues lead to women belonging in the house and not outside making big life decisions meant for their husbands. Women were meant to, “raise up a whole generation of Christian Statesmen” (171) and if a woman decided not to marry she was suppose to have some “high mission” (169) in life. Either way they must pass on their virtuous knowledge to their youth.

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

History has shown that when social movements seek influence in society, they divide the people under the guise of “revolution”. They find a scapegoat for social shortcomings, marginalize them, and use aggressive, fiery rhetoric to instigate hate. By utilizing deceptive statistics and provoking emotional responses, movements can drive the population en masse to actions that were once thought ridiculous and inconceivable. Hitler’s Nazis blamed the Jews. Lenin’s Bolsheviks blamed the upper class. Feminism blames men.

Throughout all of history there has a been a very important question that many have tried to answer. What is the role of women in society? In the 19th century, the Cult of Domesticity, also known as the Cult of True Womanhood, was introduced as an attempt to answer this question. The Cult of True Womanhood introduced a set of beliefs about gender roles that became so widely popular they could be found in magazines, newspapers, and throughout all of the famous cultures. Our modern 21st century still recognizes and practices the three factors of purity, submissiveness, and domesticity, which were greatly upheld by the cult.