Cult of Domesticity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cult of Domesticity or Cult of True Womanhood (named such by its detractors, hence the pejorative use of the word "cult") was a prevailing view during the Jacksonian Era, in the United States. It is the belief that a woman's role in marriage was to:

Maintain the home as a refuge for her husband
Train the children
Set a moral example for children to follow

True women were expected to possess four virtues: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.

Feminism accepted this understanding of gender roles.

The Cult of Domesticity identified the home as the "separate, proper sphere" for women, who were seen as better suited to parenting.

Reaction to these standards led to the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. It was led by Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They re-wrote the United States Declaration of Independence into the Declaration of Sentiments to include women, and listed a set of grievances that women had towards men.

The cult of domesticity arose again in the 1950s when television began to present shows that involved wholesome families where the mother would stay at home with the children while the man went to work.