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Men And Women In The 19th Century

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The early part of the 19th century was a time of change for the United States. Up until this time, American’s generally lived in small, rural towns where work was tied to the home. With the onset of industrialization and more advanced forms of transportation and communication the north was becoming more modernized and society began shifting from agrarian to urban. Both men and young unmarried men and women began leaving their rural homes to look for jobs and a better way of life in the city. Because of this change, new gender ideologies began to change the way American’s thought about the roles men and women played in the home and in society. Domestic Ideology and Free Labor Ideology, two new schools of thought were not positive developments for American men and women. …show more content…

The home became the woman’s domain with the female as the center of morality for the family. Domestic ideology emphasized virtue and purity and women were above feeling sexual desire. The woman’s job was to keep the men in the family morally pure. Women worried about their men being led astray by immoral women. In a letter to her brother Lealand, Amy Galusha wrote she was worried about him becoming attracted to a “fancy woman” who would lead him astray thus ruining his life (Antebellum Women, pg 119). Domestic Ideology represented the middle-class way of life with time away from work and household duties to engage in a new concept called leisure

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