The Cult of True Womanhood
The "Cult of True Womanhood" has greatly influenced society throughout all of America's history. This set of standards was first accepted and practiced by all of the European colonies. They were then passed through the generations and, in many cases, still exist. I'll describe the essay, "The Cult of True
Womanhood," and discuss my views on it. I'll then illustrate how these standards are still present in today's society.
First, I'll discuss the essay. It's easiest to describe this essay if I begin by defining "The Cult of True Womanhood." As I stated the introduction, it is a set of standards. These principles create and have created a strong division between the genders, and therefore, caused tension. Basically, it states that men are to work and make money for the family. A woman's goal was to find a husband and have children. Women were also expected to have four main cardinal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. Piety is, basically, grace. Women were to expected to always be dainty and lovely. Purity speaks for itself. Women were expected to stay abstinent until marriage.
Submissiveness means that the woman should, once married to a man, completely devote herself to him, carrying out his every wish within her power. One very powerful sentence in the essay well represents the woman's goals and values well according to "The Cul...
women some of the things that they wanted but they also gained some things by living
For decades now, women have been fighting to earn rights for political, social and economic equality to men. What made the diversity change many of the rights against women after decades of being treated unequally? The second wave of feminism started to evolve near the end of the second World War. More women were starting to achieve degrees to pursue a career which will provide them wealth and joy. The second movement mainly focused on gender equality such as voting rights, reproductive rights and political rights. Due to the feminism wave, women earned respect world wide by standing up to achieve legal rights and equality to men. Therefore, the second wave of feminism that took place in the United States during the 1960s helped bring equality for women in the areas of education, work and pay, reduced violence against women, and helped gain rights in their reproductive and political lives.
During this time period, the idealistic view of a woman was running the household while the husband provided a source of income. For a woman not to follow this role, society deemed as untraditional. However, many women began to criticize this role because they believed they should be granted the same opportunities as men. For example, in Document 3, a woman can be seen working in a factory. This is an example of a woman breaking the traditional societal role to provide a source of income for herself, rather than having it be provided for her. Not only did a vast amount of women enter the workforce, but they also began to fight for more opportunities. They fought for opportunities such as equal education, pay, and political
Throughout the novel “The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende the reader sees many instances that exemplify the antagonistic nature of man verses woman. Through Esteban Trueba’s raping of many of the women at Tres Marias, his marriage with Clara, his relationship with his daughter Blanca and her with her lover Pedro Tercero Garcia and with Alba Trueba’s relationship with her lover Miguel and her Grandfather Esteban, much of what Allende wants the reader to know about the nature of man verses woman is exposed. Nature pits man against woman, in marriage, love, sex, work, and war. Women can choose their battles and fight them subtly, without really seeming to, because all women know that the men like to think they are in charge when they really aren’t, and that men will fight every battle just to prove that they are men. Triumph over a weaker opponent does not make men stronger. It only makes them feel powerful. Allende writes about women who are able to quietly persevere, always managing to get their own way, without seeming too, because they know the only way to keep men happy is to let them feel powerful and in charge.
Before the 1890s, females had no other options but to live with their parents before marriage and with their husband after marriage. They couldn’t work and if they did their wage was way lower than men. Today many women chose their own lifestyle and have more freedom. They can chose if they want to get married and have kids or not. Coontz said “what 's new is not that women make half their families living but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to remain single or to leave an unsatisfactory marriage” (98). When women couldn’t work, they had no options but to stay with their husband for financial support. Working is a new way of freedom because they can choose to stay or leave their husband and make their own decisions. It’s not like women couldn’t work before, they could but they didn’t have too much social freedom like to get divorce or not have children. Their voice wasn’t as important as men. Most of the time men had to decide everything in the family and had control over the family. Coontz believe that today women have more control over their own life and they can choose however they want to live their life. Kuttner also agree that “most Americans, after all, believe women should not be consigned to the nursery and the kitchen” (122). Women used to be the mother who
She argues that men have professions and other duties that focus their minds and help to develop reason “whilst women, on the contrary, have no other scheme to sharpen their faculties” (Wollstonecraft 2004, 77). Women spend most of their time tending to the house and their beauty because that is what they are taught to focus on, in order to get the most out of their life. During their upbringing children are taught to follow the actions of those that share the same gender as them. This causes drastic differences between the sexes because there is no opportunity to overlap the characteristics of the two genders to create a more coherent and equal society. In relation to that, Marx states that all citizens, no matter their status, should have the right to private property and freedom to do as they wish with the labor they produce. Marx (1988, 81) believes “private property is thus the product, the result, the necessary consequence, of alienated labor, the necessary consequence, of alienated labor, of the external relation of the worker to nature and to himself.” The deprivation of the laborers from control of their own products causes their alienation not only from the products but also the rest of society, which ultimately creates an unstable form of community. This instability will eventually
The movie Bridesmaids defies the stereotypical role of women by showing the unseen manner-less and crude side of the gender throughout multiple scenes of the film. In each scene the main characters, Annie, Helen, Lillian, Becca, Rita, and Megan, act in obscene ways that are not socially acceptable for women. They all come from different social classes but are forced together for the wedding of Lillian. The gender role of a woman is a very traditional, narrow, and specific idea that does not allow women to be open and crude as they are in this film. The film shows the crude, vulgar, lusting characteristics that are not normally highlighted and acknowledged in films. Scenes like the dueling speech, food poisoning in the dress shop, and the morning after, are all examples of ways this film defies the stereotype and the divide of class by money between the women.
In the Cult of True Womanhood, Welter expressed that women are judged in piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Welter explained that women are not individuals, but always attached to a man as a mother, daughter, sister, and wife (Welter, pg. 1). Welter describes society as viewing women who have had pre-martial sexual relations as “impure” (Ibid, pg. 1). Since virginities are a gift to a girl’s future husband, and the hymen’s intactness is a sign of intelligence, women who lose their virginities prior to marriage are considered brainless (Ibid, pg. 1). Women are responsible to push men away; if they do not, then they must pay the price of “madness or death” (Ibid, pg. 1). Mag Smith, Frado’s mother, had to fend for herself when she
First, Goethe explains the different spheres of life for men and women. Men have, through the grace of their hearts, “placed his wife in the highest and holiest position she can occupy” (Goethe 1). Men grant women the ease of household work and chores to protect them from the dangers and unmoral nature of work. Work was considered corrupt and draining with the introduction of factories in the Industrial Revolution. Gone was the family businesses of farming for survival: an honest job to
From birth, a woman’s existence, during Mrs. Mallards time, was dominated by the men in her life. If a woman had a brother she was expected to be dedicated to making his life and her father’s life as fulfilling as possible. This was the woman’s duty. Wives were basically seen as objects and slaves to men. When a man was at work, women were to be caring for the kids and making sure the home was prepared for the husband. The reason women existed was to find a suitable husband and reproduce.
The origin of the word feminism has redundantly changed from each generation of feminist because of “gene-rationalism.” Gene-rationalism is when a whole generation is blamed for believing in alternative values or no values at all and a variety of young individuals who seek out different beliefs or values that are not norms contribute to this category. (Stevenson, Everingham and Robinson 130). Martha Rampton claims that there are three generational stages of feminism, which are the first, second and third wave. The first wave of feminism was to reach out and give women opportunities in industry life and Elizabeth Stanton held the Seneca Falls Declaration, which would state how women can become a part of the work force. The second wave was different
The role of women in religious scripture dictates an inferior position in society. Beginning with the creation of Adam and then Eve, as his helpmate. Her purpose was that Adam would not be lonely. This origin provides the ground work for inequality of genders on the basis of religious scripture. The roles prescribed determined that women should be in a subordinate position to man. The female role and relationship with God is defined by the various books of the Old and New Testaments, the reported actions of Jesus Christ, and finally the Qur'an.
What she wanted to aim actually, is to clarify that men are dominated in the society both economic and social privilege and freedom.
Very few novels in American Literature can earn the title of timeless. These novels transcend the ages, because they possess a greater meaning. Their stories teach people about life, the glory of the human soul, and all it can endure to overcome. Three novels in particular get to the very heart of feminine struggle. Though they touch not on women’s struggle to vote, they reach the higher plain of women’s struggle to be seen as who they are and not what society wants them to be. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple and The Bluest Eye all deal with the topic of women trying to overcome society. Although these novels were written in the mid to later half of the twentieth century, they go back to a time when the Great Depression was touching all walks of human life. Each of the main characters in these novels does not fit society’s view of femininity during the time period. Although the main characters in the three stories do not fit society’s idea of femininity, they each, in their own way, overcome this and show a greater beauty of strength.
Then there was the woman’s movement and women felt they deserved equal rights and should be considered man’s equal and not inferior. The man going out to work, and the wife staying home to care for the home and the children would soon become less the norm. This movement would go on to shape the changes within the nuclear family. Women deci...