Summary Of Cult Of Domesticity By Dorothy Hartman

By distinguishing woman as more moral than men, the ideas of the cult of domesticity spread and more people started to believe that it was the womanś job to preserve the nationś moral compass. While women were deemed morally superior, they were still considered inferior to men physically and intellectually. Purtnamś Monthly Magazine stated that ¨Women are by nature inferior to man. She is inferior in passion, his intellect, and his inferior in physical strength.” (doc 6). This was a similar view among Americans at this time, so it was accepted by society. The Cult of Domesticity increased society’s belief that women were secondary to men and in turn, affected the job opportunities available for women. For example, document 2 demonstrates that most women had a job in domestic service and as the Civil War approached women became very involved in industrial

Is it the wife's job to carry out the daily duties of the house? Is it expected that the wife do all the work around the house? In the article “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady she talks about everything she does as a wife and a mother. She explains the hardships she endures by doing these things everyday. Judy Brady uses the rhetorical techniques such as ethos, logos, and pathos to support her article, along with connecting personally with the reader.

In her article, “Three Inventories, Three Households”, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich argues that women’s work was crucial not simply for subsistence but that “women were essentials in the seventeenth century for the very same reasons they are essentials today-for the perpetuation of the race” (Ulrich 51). She believes, women were expected to do everything. They were not only to take care of the children, but they were also cook, clean, raise the greens and ranches. Mainly, women plays important role for the survival and continuation of life.

Nineteenth century America was a time when women were expected to follow the cult of domesticity, a widely accepted opinion at the time. While fathers, brothers, sons, husbands and other male loved ones went off to fight in the American Civil War, women were left behind to take care of the remaining members of the family. “It was in the home that woman’s influence was paramount and her position assured.” For some women, this was enough, however, there were others who were not satisfied with this idea, and felt as though they were meant to become something more. However, there were some opportunities for women to step outside of the social customs and gender roles of the time. In fact, “the Civil War dramatically tested those boundaries of

Catharine Beecher calls for an acceptance of the subordinate, yet important role of women in the home in A Treatise on Domestic Economy. Beecher believes that “in a truly democratic state” that women would have the right to make their own choices. Conversely, in Beecher’s time women are simply built for different things than men. Women “are made subordinate in station, only where a regard to their best interest demands it” (131). Perhaps the

In the 21st century, women must have a career and job to support a family compared to the 1950’s when women had the choice to be a stay at home mother or have a career. Spigel states, “Like Donna Reed, who sacrificed her nursing career for life with Dr. Alex Stone […]” (Spigel 224) the author is indicating that most women during the 1950’s decided to be a homemaker because that was what society expected of them. Television emphasized and valued the role of the ideal wife and a homemaker. Furthermore, TV shows like The Donna Reed Show illustrated wives to be marginal at home and central to the economy. Haralovich states, “In her value to the economy, the homemaker was at once central and marginal” (Haralovich 70). Basically, women’s labor in the home was highly valued and was given social satisfaction by consuming products to live the suburban American dream. However, women roles from today have changed due to the shift in gender roles in the American society. The “Study Date” episode of Good Luck Charlie is a perfect illustration of an ideal wife and women in today’s society. For example, Amy has to work, take care of her family, by cooking and cleaning. There is now a huge pressure for women to go to college, get a career, and to get married and raise a family. Women now are breadwinners and some men are stay at home dads. Due to economic pressures from society, both spouses have to work to maintain their family compared to the 1950’s where only one spouse could work and support a family. Both shows display the importance of society’s typical family structure and gender roles from each time period. In conclusion, there has been a dramatic shift in women’s roles in society today when compared to the

In the pastoralization of housework, woman found a new dynamic in the family system by becoming influencers. Boydston writes, “‘...in which wives were described as deities “who presides over the sanctities of domestic life, and administer its sacred rights….”” With the romanization of housework woman found themselves placed on a higher pedestal, and with this newly found power, women were able to influence their husband’s decisions. Women during the Antebellum period were described as “holy and pious” and they were seen as the more religious being out of the two sexes, so it was customary for women to use their power to help the family stay on the right path. Mrs. A. J. Graves supported this idea and directly connects women’s role of taking care of the home to a station which God and nature assigned her. Not only, did Mrs. A. J. Graves support the pastoralization of housework and gender spheres so did Catherine Beecher. Beecher argued that housework was hard work, but believed women’s work in the home administered the gentler charities of life. Boydston writes, “Beecher enjoyed the new standing afford middle-class women by their roles as moral guardians to their families and to societies, and based much of her own claim to status as a woman on the presumed differences between herself and immigrant and laboring-class women.” For middle-class women, women were given more of an influence in their

To begin, the idea of a “family” was present in early cultures in North America known as aboriginals. Aboriginals believed the concept of family was a sacred and significant function within their culture. However, the understanding of what constitutes a family differed from our understanding today. Unlike the nuclear family, aboriginals placed more emphasis on an extended family (Gendered society, 142). In other words, a family unit consisted of the entire community helpful and protecting one another. In addition, the division of labour in this particular family structure did not contain any superiority; male privilege primarily existed in the nuclear family. As years went on, society began to adopt the ways of Europeans. These ways led society to industrialization and urbanization. During this period the thought of the

The idea of republican motherhood and the cult of domesticity are two contrasting ideas of how women should be living their life around the times of the 1800s. The republican motherhood was a movement that women should be educated and are able to live individual lives without men providing for them. The cult of domesticity was a view that women should be stay-at-home wives, take care of the children, and provide comfort to the husband when he is home. The biggest difference of these two movements was the decision to educate women. Republican motherhood was all for the educating of women but the cult of domesticity wanted the opposite: no education for women.

In Virginia Woolf’s essays, entitled “The Professions for Women” and “Virginia Woolf”, she describes women’s domestic lives in the early 20th century. Woolf’s writing also sets the scene for a period when women’s place existed in the private sphere, while men’s place was the public. The aim of this paper is to explore the domestic lives of women through the lens of marriage, social class and domesticity by reviewing the writings of Virginia Woolf, Alice Wood’s essay, “Made for Measure”, Susan Glaspell’s play, “Trifles”, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s poem, “I Sit and Sew”. The common themes described in the writing of all four authors are the subordination and oppression of women in a society controlled

Grose Jessica, “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier,” it is a New Republic magazine that was published in 2013. In her article, she argues that the males in our lives freshly started catching on more of the childcare, cooking, and cleaning. But, it shows unfair advantage on women. Grose starts building her credibility such as (personal facts, reputable sources, citing convincing facts, statistics) by using Aristotelian argument using emotional appeals and logical appeals; however, at the end of the article, her trying to appeal the readers’ emotions diminish her credibility and conclusively, her argument.

“In the past twenty years the population of border cities has exploded largely as a result of migration from poor, rural areas of Mexico.” (Broughton 569) This has resulted in a drastic change in the landscape of the culture in these border cities. “The movement to and beyond the border has been shaped dramatically by gender. Men have consistently made up about 75 percent of border crossers from Mexico since 1970.” (Broughton 571)

During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.

At the beginning of the 19th century, ideas of the roles of men and women has taken a turn as women take a stand to encourage other women to overcome obstacles that society’s perspectives of gender roles confine them in. Women’s conflict to find their voice during this time struggle has taken a turn in the evolving male-dominated society. An English writer, Virginia Woolf, delivered her speech “Professions for Women”, published in 1931 for the National Society for Women’s Service, and she argues that it is important for women stand up for themselves and allow their imagination to flow despite society’s oppression. Woolf begins with building her credibility with personal anecdotes, expresses the phantoms that limit women’s

Women cannot escape poverty, be adroit, nor become autonomous, if they do not have a good-paying job. This is difficult to attain without higher education, in a society who dismisses their employment applications and that teaches women they are submissive and physically, cognitively, and psychologically inferior to men. As opposed to female advancement, women are bombarded with housewife stereotypes that emphasize their role as a sexual being whose job is to serve and please, create a family, and acquiescently look after children and the home.