The Culture of Domesticity (often shortened to Cult of Domesticity) or Cult of True Womanhood is a term used by historians to describe what they consider to have been a prevailing value system among the upper and middle classes during the 19th century in the United States. This value system emphasized new ideas of femininity, the woman's role within the home and the dynamics of work and family. "True women", according to this idea, were supposed to possess four cardinal virtues: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. The idea revolved around the woman being the center of the family; she was considered "the light of the home".
The women and men who most actively promoted these standards were generally white and Protestant; the most prominent of them lived in New England and the Northeastern United States.Lindley, Susan Hill (1996). "The Ideal American Woman". In You have stepped out of your place: a history of women and religion in America. Louisville, Kentucky.: Westminster John Knox Press, p. 56. . Although all women were supposed to emulate this ideal of femininity, black, working class, and immigrant women were often excluded from the definition of "true women" because of social prejudice.Patton, Venetria K. (2000). "The Cult of True Womanhood and its Revisions", In Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 29–30. .Yee, Shirley J. (1992). "Black Women and the Cult of True Womanhood", In Black Women Abolitionists: A Study in Activism, 1828–1860. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, p. 41. .Tyson, Lois (2001). Learning for a Diverse World: Using Critical Theory to Read and Write about Literature, New York: Routledge, pp. 88–89. .O'Brien, Jodi A.; Newman, David M. (2010). Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of Sage Publications, p. 294. .
Since the idea was first advanced by Barbara Welter in 1966, many historians have argued that the subject is far more complex and nuanced than terms such as "Cult of Domesticity" or "True Womanhood" suggest, and that the roles played by and expected of women within the middle-class, 19th-century context were quite varied and often contradictory. For example, it has been argued that much of what had traditionally been considered antifeminist has instead helped lead to feminism.Rupp, Leila J. (2002). "Woman's History in the New Millennium: A Retrospective Analysis of Barbara Welter's "The Cult of True Womanhood." Journal of Women's History 14.1.
Virtues
Part of the separate spheres ideology, the "Cult of Domesticity" identified the home as a woman's "proper sphere". Women were supposed to inhabit the private sphere, running the household and production of food (including servants), rearing the children, and taking care of the husband. According to Barbara Welter (1966), "True Women" were to hold and practice 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, a woman's greatest treasure, must not be lost until her marriage night, and a married woman had to remain committed only to her husband. 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 place was in the home and her role as a wife was to create a refuge for her husband and children. Cooking, needlework, making beds, and tending flowers were considered naturally feminine activities, whereas reading anything other than religious biographies was discouraged.
According to Welter, an ideal True Woman was "frail", too mentally and physically weak to leave her home. The care of her home made her feminine, and she depended on men to protect her within the shelter of it. Wilma Mankiller agrees, claiming that a "True Woman" was expected to be delicate, soft, and weak. She was not to engage in strenuous physical activity that would damage her “much more delicate nervous system."
Frances B. Cogan, however, described an overlapping but competing ideology that she called the ideal of "Real Womanhood," in which women were encouraged to be physically fit and active, involved in their communities, well educated, and artistically accomplished, although usually within the broader idea that women were best suited to the domestic sphere. The conflation of "Domesticity" and "True Womanhood" can be misleading in that dedication to the domestic sphere did not necessarily imply purity, submission, or weakness.Cogan, Frances B., All-American Girl: The Ideal of Real Womanhood in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America, University of Georgia Press 2010.
The characteristics of "True Womanhood" were described in sermons, books, and religious texts as well as women's magazines.Brannon, Linda (2005). Gender: Psychological Perspectives. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, pp. 154–155. . Prescriptive literature advised women on how to transform their homes into domestic sanctuaries for their husbands and children. 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 in magazines. Magazines which promoted the values of the "Cult of Domesticity" fared better financially than those competing magazines which offered a more progressive view in terms of women's roles. 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.Matthews, Glenna (1987). "Just a Housewife": The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 6, 42. . With a circulation of 150,000 by 1860,Fackler, Mark; Lippy, Charles H. (1995). Popular Religious Magazines of the United States. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, p. 241. . Godey's reflected and supported some of the ideals of the "Cult 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".Green, Harvey; Perry, Mary-Ellen (1983). The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, p. 180. .Wayne, Tiffany K. (2007). Women's roles in nineteenth-century America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, p. 1, . 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 mainly within the home.Mitchell, Sarah (2009). "A Wonderful Duty: A Study of Motherhood on Godey's Magazine". In: Sachsman, David B.; Rushing, S. Kittrell; Morris, Roy (eds). Seeking a Voice: Images of Race and Gender in the 19th Century Press. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, pp. 171–178. . At the same time, the long-time editor of Godey's, Sarah Josepha Hale, encouraged women to improve themselves intellectually, to write, and to take action that would improve the moral character of their communities and their nation. Hale promoted Vassar College, advocated for female physicians, and published many of the most important female writers of the 19th century. Frances B. Cogan argued that Godey's supported "Real Womanhood" more than "True Womanhood." Reflecting the ideals of both "True Womanhood" and "Real 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.
Influence on society The Cult of Domesticity affected married women's labor market participation in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.Bose, Christine E. (1987). "Dual Spheres". In Hess, Beth B.; Ferree, Myra Marx. Analyzing Gender: A Handbook of Social Science Research. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, pp. 278–279. . "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, however, when wives lost their husbands through death or desertion and were forced to fend for themselves and their children. This division between the domestic and public spheres had effects on women's power and status. In the society as a whole, particularly in political and economic arenas, women's power declined. Within the home, however, they gained symbolic power.Rotman, Deborah L. Historical Archaeology of Gendered Lives. New York; London: Springer, 2009, p. 19. .
The legal implications of this ideology included the passage of protective labor laws, which also limited women's employment opportunities outside the home. These laws, as well as subsequent Supreme Court rulings such as Muller v. Oregon, were based on the assumption that women's primary role was that of mother and wife, and that women's non-domestic work should not interfere with their primary function. As a result, women's working hours were limited and night work for women was prohibited, essentially costing many female workers their jobs and excluding them from many occupations.
The Cult of Domesticity "privatized" women's options for work, for education, for voicing opinions, or for supporting reform. Arguments of significant biological differences between the sexes (and often of female inferiority) led to pronouncements that women were incapable of effectively participating in the realms of politics, commerce, or public service. Women were seen as better suited to parenting. Also, because of the expected behaviors, women were assumed to make better teachers of younger children. Catharine Beecher, who proselytised about the importance of education and parenting, once said, "Woman's great mission is to train immature, weak, and ignorant creatures [children] 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".Beecher, Catharine, Woman's Suffrage and Woman's Profession, Hartford 1871. One of the first public jobs for women was teaching. One estimate says that, with the growth of public education in the northern tier of states, one-quarter of all native-born Massachusetts women in the years between 1825 and 1860 were schoolteachers at some point in their lives.Bernard, Richard and Maris Vinovskis, "The Female Schoolteacher in Ante-Bellum Massachusetts," Journal of Social History v. 10 #3, March 1977.
Connection to the women's movement
Women's rights advocates of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances Wright, and Harriet Martineau, were widely accused of disrupting the natural order of things and condemned as unfeminine. "They are only semi-women, mental hermaphrodites," wrote Henry F. Harrington in the Ladies' Companion. However, after the Jacksonian era (1812 to 1850) saw the expansion of voting rights to virtually all white males in the United States, many women believed it was their opportunity for increased civil liberties. Early feminist opposition to many of the values promoted by the Cult of Domesticity (especially concerning women's suffrage, political activism, and legal independence) culminated in the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Author and critic John Neal wrote fiction in this period to challenge the tenets of the Cult of Domesticity. His 1859 novel True Womanhood is a defense of unmarried women; he states in the preface "that marriage is not always the best thing, nor the one thing needful for [women], whatever it may be to [men]."