(Lecture 15) 'A Cult of True Womanhood'

Question 1

what were the middle-class women’s lives like in the 19th century?

Answer 1

No right to earn wages or own property.
Life in their father’s home then life in their husband’s home.
When married, they had to leave work.
Increasingly segregated.

Question 2

What was gendered work?

Answer 2

Home became more separate to workplace.
Childcare required ‘women’s’ attention.
Increasingly isolated domesticity.
Limited jobs outside of home as they were conflicting with jobs in home.

Question 3

Who is the figure of the Cult of True Womanhood?

Answer 3

Barbara Welter

Question 4

What were the 4 pillars of the Cult of True Womanhood?

Answer 4

Piety
Purity
Submissiveness
Domesticity

Question 5

What did purity mean?

Answer 5

maintenance of the chastity was what made her a true woman

Question 6

What did piety mean?

Answer 6

religion
women should stray away from intellectual pursuits

Question 7

what did submissiveness mean?

Answer 7

submissive not to all men but their husbands

Question 8

what did domesticity mean?

Answer 8

women’s place in the home.
patriotism shown by fulfilling their duties in the home.
Women would only vote for what their husbands would (apparently why they’re denied the vote).