Cult of Domesticity
The Cult of Domesticity refers to a set of ideals that defined the roles and values of upper and middle-class white women in America and Britain during the nineteenth century. Central to this ideology was the concept of the "true woman," who epitomized virtues such as piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Women were encouraged to embrace their roles within the home, attending to household duties and nurturing family life while men participated in the public sphere of work and politics. This division reinforced traditional gender roles and portrayed women's domestic responsibilities as essential to a stable family and economy. As industrialization transformed society, many women found themselves with increased leisure time, which contributed to the rise of these domestic ideals. The Cult of Domesticity faced significant challenges with the advent of the women’s rights movement and the rise of feminism in the twentieth century. Some historians argue that the moral empowerment women experienced through this cult laid the groundwork for their later activism. Despite its restrictive nature, the Cult of Domesticity has been recognized for its complex role in shaping women's identities and societal expectations during that era.
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Subject Terms
Cult of Domesticity
The cult of domesticity is a term historians use to describe the female values system prevalent among upper and middle-class American and British white women throughout the nineteenth century. The cult of domesticity revolved around the concept of the "true woman," who embodied a principled femininity that consigned her to the household while her husband went to work. These virtues were touted as essential to not only a healthy family but also a healthy economy. The popularity of this system of ideals was brought to an end by the women's movement and the development of feminism. However, some historians argue that without the moral empowerment provided to women by the cult of domesticity such movements would not have been possible.
Background
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was an era of massive industrial growth in the United States and the United Kingdom. New businesses and professions emerged with the growth of factories, machinery, and steam power. The Industrial Revolution led to the introduction of mass produced goods that were previously made by hand. This allowed families to purchase the items they needed rather than spend time making such things. This left many women with free time on their hands.
The growing availability of affordable goods and services helped create the middle class. This class primarily consisted of families whose patriarchs worked as doctors, lawyers, factory managers, office workers, merchants, and teachers. These jobs earned enough to allow women and children to stay at home while the men worked. As more women began staying home with their families while men went to work, an ideology of feminine behavior developed that came to define the roles of nineteenth-century middle- and upper-class white women.
Between roughly 1820 and 1860, middle- and upper-class men and women became increasingly distinguished by their designated gender roles. Men were expected to work and earn money for the household. Many men worked long hours, so women had to ensure the household was taken care of and in order. Women's roles were further narrowed with the emergence of "scientific" research that claimed to show women were biologically inferior to men in terms of engagement in politics, commerce, and public service. According to these arguments, women required the security and protection of the physically superior male to effectively carry out their duties in the home. These duties included housekeeping, raising children, organizing a healthy home, and maintaining familial happiness as well as their own virtue. Consistent with this ideology was society's reliance on women's success in the domestic setting. Women's ability to support the household was thought to directly affect male attitudes. With a household in order, men could focus on work and family income. This, in turn, kept the economy churning smoothly.
Overview
Scholars later came to identify this feminine ideology as the cult of domesticity. The cult of domesticity revolved around an idealized female, which nineteenth-century Americans referred to as the true woman. The cult of domesticity also divided the world into two spheres: the public sphere and the private sphere. The public sphere was the realm of men, full of business, politics, and society. The private sphere was the home front, which belonged to women. The true woman upheld the four main principles of the cult of domesticity: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.
In terms of piety, the true woman was considered very religious and selfless. The ideal female embodied the spirit of self-sacrifice, suffering for the sake of her family. She possessed a pure and passionless love like that of the biblical Eve, and her mission, like Eve's, was to work with God in pursuit of a world without sin. Religion was also thought to keep women's restless minds at ease and ensure they remained in their proper sphere. Women who did not live up to this standard of piety were considered abominations.
Alongside piety, female purity was of the utmost importance. Without sexual purity, women lost their idealized status. Such women were often referred to as "fallen women." Society cast out these women, deeming them unworthy of love or company. A woman's virginity was a prized possession that was given to the man she loved on her wedding night. Women used their purity to attract men and to ensure that men checked their own temptations. Purity's power was such that women could use it to protect themselves against male sexual desire. Even impure thoughts were discouraged, and advice books often offered young women help with avoiding temptation. Popular literature of the era further dissuaded impurity by describing fallen women who paid for their sins through the loss of children, the loss of sanity, and, sometimes, the loss of their lives.
Submissiveness was an especially important facet of the cult of domesticity. Where men were the doers in life, women were expected to be the passive bystanders. The true woman deferred to her husband on all things social and political. She also submitted to God and fate. In her submission, she was obedient, humble, and never caught with a temper. Part of this submission was encapsulated in the female wardrobe, which featured long, heavy dresses and tight, constricting corsets. In feminine advice books, such as George Washington Burnap's The Sphere and Duties of Woman, authors encouraged women to acknowledge their timidity, weakness, and need for protection and cherish their dependence on men.
The final ideal of the true woman was domesticity, which affirmed a woman's place in the home. The home had become separate from the workspace in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. The work realm was now defined as male while the home was defined as female. Within the home, a woman undertook duties that fulfilled the first three principles of the cult of domesticity. Household tasks such as making and pouring tea, needlework, and other crafts kept women busy and uplifted as they built a happy, healthful home. All this was designed to provide a sanctuary for their husbands from a cruel and chaotic outside world.
The ideals of the cult of domesticity remained the standard model of womanhood throughout the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the outbreak of World War II and the women's rights movement posed a challenge to many of these ideals, which eventually led to the emergence of feminism. Although many women activists would label the cult of domesticity as anti-feminist, scholars argue that the emphasis on women being the moral strongholds of the household empowered them to extend these strengths outside the home and into the activist sphere.
Bibliography
Boydston, Jeanne. "Cult of True Womanhood." PBS, www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/resources/index.html?body=culthood.html. Accessed 15 Feb. 2018.
"The Cult of Domesticity." America in Class, americainclass.org/the-cult-of-domesticity/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2018.
"Cult of Domesticity: Definition & Significance." Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/cult-of-domesticity-definition-significance.html. Accessed 15 Feb. 2018.
"The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820–1860." University of Colorado Boulder, www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/1025/cultwoman.pdf. Accessed 15 Feb. 2018.
"A Man's Home: Rethinking the Public/Private Dichotomy in American Political Thought." University of Massachusetts Lowell, faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/RPOldconclusion.htm. Accessed 15 Feb. 2018.
Matthew, Gienna. "Just a Housewife": The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America. Oxford UP, 1987.
"Notes on the Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood." City University of New York, csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/386/truewoman.pdf. Accessed 15 Feb. 2018.
Turner, Laura. "The Good Wife: How The Cult of Domesticity Still Reigns in the 21st Century." Pacific Standard, 10 Sept. 2015, psmag.com/social-justice/the-21st-century-cult-of-domesticity. Accessed 15 Feb. 2018.