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Victorian morality
Victorian morality
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Victorian morality
Victorian morality
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Recommended: Victorian morality
“Her domain was the household, the garden, and the henhouse, and her days were spent processing the raw materials her husband produced into usable items such as food, clothing, candles, and soap (page6).” As known by many, women during the 17th century were to maintain their households for their husbands. By the 18th century they were expected to not only maintain a household, but to take care of their families and be proper women. Then by the late 18th century women's roles changed completely to having to be a surrogate father, and main provider. The roles of women during this time period changed drastically in such short periods of times.
Rather than women making stuff her job was rather than making stuff, their job was to enable their spouse to make stuff, by providing food, and a clean living space, but also by providing “non-market values” such as love, friendship, and mutual obligation.” The idea of true equality between genders was not embraced and despite the growth in new market economy women’s opportunities for employment were very limited. Women had very low paying jobs and in most states, women had no control over their wages if they weren’t married. Many of these women that found these jobs were in factories, or as domestic servants or seamstresses. Middle class women found work in teaching, but according to the cult of domesticity middle class women’s place was to stay at
Also exclusive was their “sphere,” or domain of influence, which was confined completely to the home. Thus the Cult of Domesticity “privatized” women’s options for work, for education, for voicing opinions, or for supporting reform. The true woman would take on the obligations of housekeeping, raising good children, and making her family’s home a haven of health, happiness, and virtue. All society would benefit from her performance of these sacred domestic
In her article, “Three Inventories, Three Households”, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich argues that women’s work was crucial not simply for subsistence but that “women were essentials in the seventeenth century for the very same reasons they are essentials today-for the perpetuation of the race” (Ulrich 51). She believes, women were expected to do everything. They were not only to take care of the children, but they were also cook, clean, raise the greens and ranches. Mainly, women plays important role for the survival and continuation of life.
“A man’s job is to earn money; a woman’s job is to look after the home and family”. The definition of how a man or a woman should act have recently been redefined by society. Males were supposed to be the strong, dominant figures, in the workplace, providing for their families while females should be the submissive figures, managing the cleaning, cooking and the children. The balance of culture would have been disrupted had anyone drifted away from these definitions. In the 1980’s, a man playing housewife was ludicrous, and a woman being the sole provider for the family was considered outlandish.
In the pastoralization of housework, woman found a new dynamic in the family system by becoming influencers. Boydston writes, “‘...in which wives were described as deities “who presides over the sanctities of domestic life, and administer its sacred rights….”” With the romanization of housework woman found themselves placed on a higher pedestal, and with this newly found power, women were able to influence their husband’s decisions. Women during the Antebellum period were described as “holy and pious” and they were seen as the more religious being out of the two sexes, so it was customary for women to use their power to help the family stay on the right path. Mrs. A. J. Graves supported this idea and directly connects women’s role of taking care of the home to a station which God and nature assigned her.
Craft examines the usual roles of the Victorian men and women, passive women especially, requiring them to “suffer and be still”. The men of this time were higher up on the important ladder of that era. Craft believes the men are the “doers” or active ones in
These roles were extremely stereotypical as anywhere one looks the same picture is painted. For example, Gunnhildur Magnusd describes this social expectation as: “Their duty, as a woman, along with having children, was to create and sustain a serene and relaxing environment within the home, where the husband could be at leisure after a day at work”(7). Another portrayal of these expectations is shown through Jennifer Levine’s article, “The Reclamation of the Monstrous Female”, in which she describes: “The concept of the Angel in the House—the pure, virtuous, non-sexualized female—is one of the most monolithic and immobile depictions of the Victorian womanhood” (1). As one can see, the descriptions are not different at all as females had a rigid characterized perception from society. Both depict the Victorian woman as the perfect, compassionate, wife that takes care of the children and covers up.
The women were expected to create a happy home, guard the religion, and the morality of her family. The unmarried and married women who tried to seek work outside the home faced limited employment opportunities because of their gender. Women were expected to only focus on domestic duties and her role were limited to continue living in the man’s world. Women roles were expected to be in line with the culture and norms set by the society. The American culture perceived that women were not intellectually and emotionally stable to be involved in the complex world of work and, therefore, women did not take up leadership and political roles.
Domesticity is the ideology that one’s home should be distinct from the rest of the world, and that these separate spheres should be associated with gender roles. Moreover, a man’s role should be to work outside the home and a woman’s role should be to stay in the home to offer the family emotional and moral support. The cannon of domesticity developed in New England after industrialization and the market economy emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. Domesticity developed after industrialization because many people, presumably men, went to work outside the household, as opposed to doing labor near the home. Therefore, the cannon of domesticity served to counter the ideals of the working world, which were seen as corrupt and exploitative, by calling for women to uphold the traditional values of family and morality in the home.
Among the upper class, the traditional importance of housekeeping increased. There was a possibility that it increased due to the fact that the roles of friendly neighbor and deputy husband had begun to decline. As early American women kept up with the daily housekeeping,
Introduction For a long period in the United States, the ideal woman was one who stayed at home to take care of her children and keep her home clean, while her husband went out to work. This has been the set role of women for centuries because they are historically considered inferior to men. Traditionally, women were considered weak and incapable of performing any work requiring a physical effort or intellectual capacity.
Moreover, the shortage of female employment opportunities, as well as restrictive cultural expectations, resulted in only a narrow range of careers to be available to women. For example, for the comparatively few middle class women who pursued a career outside of the home, they “...had been largely restricted to school-teaching, social-service work, nursing, stenography, and clerical work in business houses” (Allen, 80). Therefore, women’s identities during the very early 1900s were heavily influenced by the work they provided in the home, and the traditional norms of the times. Thus, while these women made efforts towards independence from the traditional norms, they were almost completely reliant on
A Simple Life Day in and day out, the same routine with no motivation for anything else. Wake up, cook breakfast, wake the children and tend to your husband. This was the only life women knew in the 1700’s. The highlight of their days was taking care of the homes. They watched as their husbands left for work as they stood in the doorway with their children.
During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.