Cult of True Womanhood Outline Essay

During the early 1800's women were stuck in the Cult of Domesticity. Women had been issued roles as the moral keepers for societies as well as the nonworking house-wives for families. Also, women were considered unequal to their male companions legally and socially. However, women’s efforts during the 1800’s were effective in challenging traditional intellectual, social, economical, and political attitudes about a women’s place in society.

In the early nineteenth century, women were expected to be, “‘angels in the house,’ loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste wives, mothers and daughters or they are… ultimately doomed” (King et al. 23). Women of this time were supposed to be domestic creatures and not tap so far into their intellectual abilities (King et al.). The role of women in the nineteenth century is described:

For the most part, society’s conception of women in the 19th century dictated the way women were treated and influenced the portrayal of female characters in writing generated during that time. The Cult of Domesticity claimed that true womanhood was marked by a natural inclination to domesticity and submissiveness. Though all women clearly have the capacity to think for themselves, earn money, and overcome the emotional obstacles they may meet, the plausibility of complete independence was a challenging appeal for Harper to make. Men dominated family

Throughout “Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters”, Peter Vronsky explores and identifies the many factors that go into the making of a serial killer. With his audience, he brings them through psychological, historical, and cultural research findings concerning serial killers along with investigating the minds of the serial killers leading him to understand why they commit gruesome crimes. Together, the research and observations led him to believe that serial killers are not born serial killers but become them due to them adapting to their social, psychological, and environmental traumas. Starting from the beginning, Vronsky continuously compares and contrasts patterns that are found within serial killers from birth to death. For example, the comparison of Ted Bundy and Jerry Brudos, who both were children with a confusing family dynamic and

Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

Women were confronted by many social obligation in the late nineteenth century. Women were living lives that reflected their social rank. They were expected to be economically dependent and legally inferior. No

The article, The Cult of Womanhood: 1820 - 1860 written by Barbara Welter discusses the philosophy towards women in America during the mid 19th century. A set of demands and expectations based upon four principles: piety, purity, submission and domesticity were placed on women as well as certain behavioral expectations left 19th century women feeling guilty. It also left women feeling this way during the industrialization period as well as having a huge presence of incompatibility with society. Welter shares her viewpoint that the Cult of Womanhood was an attempt to preserve pre modern values in the industrial age. Men held a dominant place in society and continued to prevent new opportunities for women to explore. Narrow minded

housewife, to stay at home. This is my explanation of the essay, "The Cult of

It would be a huge understatement to say that many things have changed when it comes to women's rights, positions, and roles in our society today since the 19th century. Actually, very few similarities remain. Certain family values, such as specific aspects of domesticity and performance of family duties are amongst the only similarities still present.

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

Indian-Americans are people who either originated themselves or descend from an ancestor who was born in India. The dynamics in a home where parents are native Indians and the children are first generation born Indian-Americans are quite different from other hyphenated American cultures. The languages used within the homes as well as the rituals to show levels of respect are critical things implemented within a family unit of this stature. The spoken and unspoken rules of communication shape the first generation Indian-Americans and how they interact with others in their generation.

Despite being under the rule of a female monarch, women faced many inequalities and suffering during the Victorian age. Examples of these inequalities include not having the right to vote, unequal educational and employment opportunities. Women were even denied the legal right to divorce in most cases. As the Norton Anthology states, these debates over women’s rights and their roles came to be known as the “woman question” by the Victorians. This lead to many conflicting struggles, such as the desire by all for women to be educated, yet they are denied the same opportunities afforded to men. While these women faced these difficulties, there was also the notion that women should be domestic and feminine. There was an ideal that women should be submissive and pure because they are naturally different. The industrial revolution introduced women into the labor workforce, but there was still a conflict between the two identities; one of an employed woman, and one of a domestic housewife.

Men were generally seen as having the ruling voice as fathers, husbands, masters, teachers, preachers, magistrates, soldiers and lords. A public life was practically impossible for a woman and even if a woman had some public reputation she was vulnerable to fall prey to some kind of scandal or the other. The stereotypical ideal woman was one who was submissive and obedient. Women were valued on the basis of their physical features and beauty and obedience, quietude, sexual chastity, piety, humility, fidelity, patience etc. were the standardised attributes that were expected to be possessed by the “virtuous” women. Women who did not emulate these conventions were regarded as objects of criticism by the male dominated society and this,

During the 19th century, women were controlled by a male dominated society. The women were in pure agony knowing that there was no faith for them to have a crucial change in civilization. This could often lead to “clinical depression” in which a human could feel lonely, empty, confounded and miserable. In this time period, women’s role in society was to be simply mothers and wives. A world where women had rights, control, and power was a fantasy. According to Hall, he states, “Key to all feminist methodologies is the belief that patriarchal oppression of women through history has been profound and multifaceted” (Hall 202). In other words, it is known that the male takes complete cruel supremacy over the years in our history. In The

Women in today’s society have become equal to men in nearly every aspect of life. They hold independent jobs, can provide for themselves, and have almost every right that man has. Up until very recently, this was not the case for women or their value in the community. In the 16th century, women were treated completely different. They were primarily domestic-minded, and were chosen by husbands based off of the value that they could bring into a household. Beauty and love did come into play, but the woman was definitely subordinate to the potential husband in almost every aspect. In Cervantes’ Don Quixote, virtue in a spouse is defined by cultural thought and through an indirect source that creates a “perfect” wife mentally.