Culture of Domesticity

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The Culture of Domesticity (often shortened to Cult of Domesticity[1]) or Cult of True Womanhood[a] 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.[2] 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".[3][4]

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.[5] 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.[6][7][8][9]

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 has been considered as anti-feminist in the past, in fact, helped lead to feminism.[10]

  1. ^ Lisa A. Keister, Darby E. Southgate (2011). Inequality: A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-521-68002-8.
  2. ^ Keister 2011, p. 228.
  3. ^ Welter 1966, p. 152.
  4. ^ Lavender, Catherine. "Notes on The Cult of Domesticity Womanhood" (PDF). The College of Staten Island/CUNY. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  5. ^ 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. ISBN 978-0-664-22081-5.
  6. ^ 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. ISBN 978-0-7914-4343-9.
  7. ^ 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. ISBN 978-0-87049-735-3.
  8. ^ Tyson, Lois (2001). Learning for a Diverse World: Using Critical Theory to Read and Write about Literature, New York: Routledge, pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0-8153-3773-7.
  9. ^ 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. ISBN 978-1-4129-7942-9.
  10. ^ 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.