The Cult of Domesticity and The Paradox of 19th Century Wome

Impact

• Affected married women's labor market participation
• complete financial dependence on husbands
• division between domestic and public spheres lead to decline in women's power
• no one considered their work in the home as work--just an expression of their feminine nature
• shaped nuclear family

Domesticity = an Art form

Art Form:

- tea time: rules for setting up dinner parties like flowers on the table cannot impair vision of other guests

- girls learned needlepoint to do in spare hours

- stitched passages from the Bible or nursery rhymes

- intricate preparation for parties--kept her mind busy

Virtues of "True Women"

Factors of the Paradox

Roles: Men vs. Women

• Piety:
• kept women in her "proper sphere"
• controlled women's longings
• Purity:
• Virginity considered a "woman's greatest treasure"
• Submission:
• men regarded as superiors "by God's appointment"
• women kept in perpetual childhood
• Domesticity:
• a woman's sphere was the home
• wife created refuge for husband and children

• The Hatch Family by Eastman Johnson
• men appear more intellectual, reading newspapers in the background and relaxing
• women entertaining and holding the children
• photo split in 2 groups

The Copley Family

• by John Singleton Copley
• mother and child gazing into each other's eyes
• father looks stern and does not make eye contact with child in his lap
• showing that it is a woman's nature to be good with kids

Men:

• provider
• disciplinarian
• even tempered

Visual Representation

Women:

• pious
• feminine
• dedication to family
• devotion to household
• housework
• taught children manners and morals

• Tea Leaves byWilliam McGregor Paxton
• liked to portray refined women in decorated interiors
• Theory of Leisure class: "a woman's 'conspicuous leisure' signaled the wealth of her father or husband."

• Religion
• Propaganda
• literature/magazines
• Industrial Revlution
• increased men's importance
• if wealthy enough, women allowed to stay home--did not need the extra income
• symbol of wealth for women to stay home

The Cult of Domesticity and The Paradox of 19th Century Women

Introduction: The Paradox

• With the rise of the industrial revolution, most would expect a rise of middle class women in the work force.
• However, a new social ideal came about, in which middle class women stayed in the home to flaunt their husbands' wealth.
• Thus, their domestic subordination increased when it should ave been decreasing.

By Sena Spinella

Conclusion

Factors: Literature

Factors: Industrial Revolution

Factors: Propaganda

Expected Qualities from Women

• Children's literature differentiated by gender
• aimed to spread social and cultural morals
• boy books: adventure stories, schoolboy maxims
• girl books: domestic role, lady-like behavior, religious cheerfulness, familial obedience

• Magazines
• promoted Cult of Domesticity
• magazines told women how to act
• Godey's Magazie=the Good Housekeeping of its day
• paintings and pictures illustrated 4 virtues
• encouraged women to find fulfillment in the home
• housework and fashion

• Women prepared for marriage
• marriage = status
• subservient to husband
• no divorces
• Industrial Revolution increased wealth
• sign of man's importance that women are kept idle
• women in the home = visible sign of the success of husbands/fathers
• spread through middle class until work for women became a misfortune and disgrace
• division between working class women and middle class women

• "True Women": Ideal of feminity
• delicate, soft, weak
• center of family and "light of the home"
• womanhood = motherhood
• "perfection of womanhood is the wife and mother"

• Religion
• Propaganda
• convincing women the home is their sphere
• Industrial Revolution
• increased a man's importance
• working women looked down upon
• stay at home mothers signaled wealth of her husband
• booming economy for material goods to dress up the home
• clear division between working and middle class women
• Instead of decreasing, middle class women's domestic subordination increased during this time because staying at home became a symbol of wealth and status to strive towards.

Industrial Revolution Continued

• Status Symbol:
• middle class "better" than working class because husbands are so wealthy women can remain home
• Booming economy helped fuel domesticity so women could buy material items to dress up their houses
• china
• furniture