Barbara Welter's The Cult Of True Womanhood

1391 Words6 Pages
During the 19th century, Industrialization occurred in the United States. The transition from an agrarian and handcrafted economy to industrial and machine oriented economy increased the necessity for white collar jobs in the urban setting. This shift created a greater distinction between the public and private sphere as well as a prominent middle class within the northern states. Men now were coined as citizens, breadwinners, and producers; while women took on the title of wife, mother, neighbor, and consumer. Even the traits between the sexes became more defined. Men were typed as sexual, intellectual, self-interested, and morally tainted. On the other hand women were spiritual, emotional, selfless, and morally pure. Men were the masters…show more content…
One of these leisure’s was reading, specifically Godey’s Lady’s Book, a magazine intended to entertain, inform, and educate women, frequently on topics related to the private sphere. Godey’s Lady’s Book encouraged women to achieve “True Womanhood”. A standard set by the writing of Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood”, stating that a true woman has four virtues: piety- religious morals, purity – virgin until married, submission – submissive and obedient to husband, and domesticity – create a refuge for husband and children. Industrialization in the United States during the 19th Century caused a shift in exceptions of women within the private sphere because men were now working in the corrupted urban world, white collar jobs allowed women to be free of productive labor outside the home, and "True womanhood" was dependent on middle class…show more content…
When white collar jobs developed because of Industrializing men were pulled into the big cities and out of the domestic life. Women were the front runners for religious morals, they were submissive to their husbands for relieving them of the public sphere, as well as avid homemakers to please their families. However women that were part of the working class were condemned because they could not achieve these ideals. They did not have the money to support the middle class lifestyle that included leisure’s such as Godey’s Lady’s Books. This women’s periodical was a front runner in the creation of these ideals as a response to industrialization. The shift of the exceptions of women within the private sphere was because men were now working in the corrupted urban world, white collar jobs allowed women to be free of productive labor outside the home, and "True womanhood" was dependent on middle class
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    The lives of women in the antebellum society of late nineteenth century America were characterized by oppression and shaded by an aura of death. According to Barbara Welter in her essay “The Cult of True Womanhood,” the way in which a woman “judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.” Defiance of these virtues would result in societal ostracization, being deemed “unsexed.” Amidst

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