Cult of Domesticity
Encyclopedia
The Cult of Domesticity or Cult of True Womanhood was a prevailing value system among the upper
and middle classes
during the nineteenth century in the United States
and Great Britain
. Although all women were supposed to emulate this ideal of womanhood, it was assumed that only white
women could live up to the ideal. Similarly, working class
women who had to leave the domestic sphere to pursue paid employment, were regarded as unfeminine.
According to the ideals of the cult of domesticity, women were supposed to embody perfect virtue in all senses. The women who abided by and promoted these standards were generally literate and lived in the Northeastern United States, particularly New York
and Massachusetts
. Women were put in the center of the domestic sphere and were expected to fulfill the roles of a calm and nurturing mother, a loving and faithful wife, and a passive, delicate, and virtuous creature. These women were also expected to be pious and religious, teaching those around them by their Christian
beliefs, and expected to unfailingly inspire and support their husbands.
According to historian
Barbara Welter, author of the influential essay on this topic, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820–1860", True Women were to hold the four cardinal virtues:
The characteristics of a "true woman" were described in sermons
and religious texts
as well as women's magazines. In the United States, Peterson's magazine and Godey's Lady's Book
were the most widely circulated women's magazines and were popular among both women and men. Magazines which promoted the values of the Cult of Domesticity faired better financially than competing magazines which offered a more progressive view in terms of women's roles. With a circulation of 150,000 by 1860, Godey's strove to spread the ideals of True Womanhood. The magazine's paintings and pictures illustrated the four virtues, often showing women with children or behind husbands. It also equated womanhood with motherhood and being a wife, declaring that the "perfection of womanhood (...) is the wife and mother". The magazine presented motherhood as a woman's natural and most satisfying role, and encouraged women to find their fulfillment and their contributions to society strictly within the home. Reflecting the ideal of True Womanhood, Godey's considered mothers as crucial in preserving the memory of the American Revolution
and in securing its legacy by raising the next generation of citizens. Fashion was also stressed because a woman had to stay up to date in order to please her husband. Instructions for seamstresses were often included.
ideology, the Cult of Domesticity identified the home as women's "proper sphere" whereas the public arena was regarded as men's proper sphere. The Cult of Domesticity affected married women's labor market participation in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, as True Women were supposed to devote themselves to unpaid domestic labor and refrain from paid, market-oriented work. Consequently, in 1890, 4.5% of all married women were "gainfully employed," compared with 40.5% of single women. Women's complete financial dependence upon their husbands proved disastrous when wives lost their husbands through death or desertion and were forced to fend for themselves and their children. The division between the domestic and public spheres had an impact on women's power and status. In society as a whole, particularly in political and economic arenas, women's power declined. Within the home, however, they gained symbolic power.
Women were seen as better suited to parenting
. Catharine Beecher
, a headmistress who proselytised about the importance of education and parenting, once said, "Woman's greatest mission is to obey the laws of God, first in the family, then in the school, then in the neighborhood, then in the nation, then in the world." Also, because of the expected behaviors woman were assumed to make better teachers and thus one of the first out of home jobs for women was teaching. One estimate says that one quarter of all native-born New England women in the years between 1825 and 1860 were schoolteachers at some point in their lives. Peoples of the nineteenth century, both men and women, did not consider what women did as wives and mothers as work but as an effortless expression of their feminine natures.
such as Mary Wollstonecraft
, Frances Wright
, and Harriet Martineau
were not only accused of tampering with the natural order of things, but were also condemned as unfeminine. "They are only semi-women, mental hermaphrodites," wrote Henry F. Harrington
in the Ladies' Companion. After the rise of feminism and the fight for women's rights, the cult of domesticity arose again in the 1950s when television began to present shows that depicted fictional families where the mother would stay at home with the children while the man went to work. The Cult of Domesticity shaped an idealized myth of the family and paved the way for the nuclear family
.
After the Jacksonian Period, 1812 to 1850, had granted universal white male suffrage, extending the right to vote to virtually all white males in America, women believed it was their opportunity for civil liberty. However, even after the Declaration of Sentiments
was written at the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, the right to vote was not extended to women until 1920.
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
and middle classes
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
during the nineteenth century in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. Although all women were supposed to emulate this ideal of womanhood, it was assumed that only white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
women could live up to the ideal. Similarly, working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
women who had to leave the domestic sphere to pursue paid employment, were regarded as unfeminine.
According to the ideals of the cult of domesticity, women were supposed to embody perfect virtue in all senses. The women who abided by and promoted these standards were generally literate and lived in the Northeastern United States, particularly New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Women were put in the center of the domestic sphere and were expected to fulfill the roles of a calm and nurturing mother, a loving and faithful wife, and a passive, delicate, and virtuous creature. These women were also expected to be pious and religious, teaching those around them by their Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
beliefs, and expected to unfailingly inspire and support their husbands.
Virtues
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Barbara Welter, author of the influential essay on this topic, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820–1860", True Women were to hold the four cardinal virtues:
- Piety – Religion was valued because unlike intellectual pursuits it did not take a woman away from her "proper sphere," the home, and because it controlled women's longings
- Purity – Virginity was seen as a woman's greatest treasure which she had to preserve until her marriage night
- Submission – True Women were required to be as submissive and obedient "as little children" because men were regarded as women's superiors "by God's appointment"
- Domesticity – A woman's proper sphere was the home where a wife created a refuge for her husband and children; Needlework, cooking, making beds, and tending flowers were considered proper feminine activities whereas reading of anything other than religious biographies was discouraged
The characteristics of a "true woman" were described in sermons
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
and religious texts
Tract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
as well as women's magazines. In the United States, Peterson's magazine and Godey's Lady's Book
Godey's Lady's Book
Godey's Lady's Book, alternatively known as Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, was a United States magazine which was published in Philadelphia. It was the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the Civil War. Its circulation rose from 70,000 in the 1840s to 150,000 in 1860...
were the most widely circulated women's magazines and were popular among both women and men. Magazines which promoted the values of the Cult of Domesticity faired better financially than competing magazines which offered a more progressive view in terms of women's roles. With a circulation of 150,000 by 1860, Godey's strove to spread the ideals of True Womanhood. The magazine's paintings and pictures illustrated the four virtues, often showing women with children or behind husbands. It also equated womanhood with motherhood and being a wife, declaring that the "perfection of womanhood (...) is the wife and mother". The magazine presented motherhood as a woman's natural and most satisfying role, and encouraged women to find their fulfillment and their contributions to society strictly within the home. Reflecting the ideal of True Womanhood, Godey's considered mothers as crucial in preserving the memory of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
and in securing its legacy by raising the next generation of citizens. Fashion was also stressed because a woman had to stay up to date in order to please her husband. Instructions for seamstresses were often included.
Impact
Part of the Separate SpheresSeparate Spheres
Separate Spheres is a concept within Women's History and Gender History that describes the split dominions of the home and public spheres along gender lines, primarily in 19th Century Britain, although the ideology was present at work in the Americas as well...
ideology, the Cult of Domesticity identified the home as women's "proper sphere" whereas the public arena was regarded as men's proper sphere. The Cult of Domesticity affected married women's labor market participation in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, as True Women were supposed to devote themselves to unpaid domestic labor and refrain from paid, market-oriented work. Consequently, in 1890, 4.5% of all married women were "gainfully employed," compared with 40.5% of single women. Women's complete financial dependence upon their husbands proved disastrous when wives lost their husbands through death or desertion and were forced to fend for themselves and their children. The division between the domestic and public spheres had an impact on women's power and status. In society as a whole, particularly in political and economic arenas, women's power declined. Within the home, however, they gained symbolic power.
Women were seen as better suited to parenting
Parenting
Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood...
. Catharine Beecher
Catharine Beecher
Catharine Esther Beecher was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on women's education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education....
, a headmistress who proselytised about the importance of education and parenting, once said, "Woman's greatest mission is to obey the laws of God, first in the family, then in the school, then in the neighborhood, then in the nation, then in the world." Also, because of the expected behaviors woman were assumed to make better teachers and thus one of the first out of home jobs for women was teaching. One estimate says that one quarter of all native-born New England women in the years between 1825 and 1860 were schoolteachers at some point in their lives. Peoples of the nineteenth century, both men and women, did not consider what women did as wives and mothers as work but as an effortless expression of their feminine natures.
Connection to the women's movement
Women who advocated for women's rightsWomen's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
such as Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
, Frances Wright
Frances Wright
Frances Wright also widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and social reformer, who became a U. S. citizen in 1825...
, and Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau was an English social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist....
were not only accused of tampering with the natural order of things, but were also condemned as unfeminine. "They are only semi-women, mental hermaphrodites," wrote Henry F. Harrington
Henry F. Harrington
Henry F. Harrington was an American newspaper editor. He edited the Boston Herald for part of the 1830s.In 1837, Harrington delivered a message by train from Worcester to Boston, a distance of 45 miles. The trip took just under an hour. Martin, while appreciative of Harrington's determination,...
in the Ladies' Companion. After the rise of feminism and the fight for women's rights, the cult of domesticity arose again in the 1950s when television began to present shows that depicted fictional families where the mother would stay at home with the children while the man went to work. The Cult of Domesticity shaped an idealized myth of the family and paved the way for the nuclear family
Nuclear family
Nuclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a father and mother and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have...
.
After the Jacksonian Period, 1812 to 1850, had granted universal white male suffrage, extending the right to vote to virtually all white males in America, women believed it was their opportunity for civil liberty. However, even after the Declaration of Sentiments
Declaration of Sentiments
The Declaration of Sentiments, also known as the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, is a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men, 100 out of some 300 attendees at the first women's rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York, now known as the Seneca Falls Convention...
was written at the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, the right to vote was not extended to women until 1920.