The Cult of Domesticity

The Cult of Domesticity--or, more pejoratively--The Cult of True Womanhood, refers to adherents of unwritten rules of social, sexual, and moral propriety regarding women's behavior in the 19th Century from 1820 until 1860. By referring to this set of beliefs as creating a "cult" reveals the depth of their impact on women's lives. It was Catherine Beecher, sister to Harriet Beecher Stowe, who identified the four pillars of virtue that would hold women to behavioral convention and keep them under masculine control.  

Piety: As Victorian society was divided into separate spheres--that of men (exterior world of business and work); and that of women (the home), 19th century women were thought to represent the 'heart' of the Victorian home, and therefore were believed responsible for embodying Christian asceticism, faith, modesty, and were entrusted with the religious instruction of children.

Purity: 19th century women were to exude moral chastity in mind, body, and soul.

Submission: Women were to submit to the head of household--the husband, the father--and to remain childlike in a condition of perpetual naivete.

Domesticity: As women were the denizens of the home, they were charged with providing a haven for their husbands from the stressors of the outside world. Many of their duties included overseeing the activities of the household, including the duties of servants, maintaining correspondence with social networks and the social roster, and to prepare as immaculate and idyllic domestic scene to further the reputation of her husband.

Scholars note that women's domestic duties were not considered 'work' in the classical sense, but "effortless" demonstrations of their innate nurturing natures.  Work for women outside the home was rare and limited: Protective labor laws further delimited jobs for women in the 19th century as governmental policy deemed that professional work for women encroached upon their domestic duties, so work hours were limited to a spare few during the day, while evening work was prohibited (1). Teaching eventually became widely acknowledged as suitable for females, as the classroom was considered to be an extension of the home, and teaching an extension of spiritual instruction for children. Catharine Beecher (sister to Harriet Beecher Stowe) was early educator who championed the inclusion of Kindergarten in early childhood education.

African American women in the 19th century were not subjected to the same criteria. Thought to be amoral and wanton, the African American woman's body was consistently objectified and sexualized by white males. While white females were heralded as sainted mothers, the black woman could not ascend to "true womanhood" and therefore felt no pangs of grief when separated from her children. These social mores were situated in place to ensure the control of the white male in Victorian society: such strategic social structuring ensured his dominion over two spheres of femininity in the household and put in place a complex network of social dynamics most visible between white and black women in the 19th century.

Below are some references to further reading on the topic of the Cult of True Womanhood, and to other related topics:

JSTOR: "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860" by Barbara Welter
America in Class: The Cult of Domesticity
"Cult of True Womanhood" by Jeanne Boydston/PBS.org
Gwin, Minrose. "Green-Eyed Monsters of the  
   Slavocracy: Jealous Mistresses in Two Slave
   Narratives." Conjuring: Black Women Writers and   
   Literary Tradition. ed. Marjorie Pryse and Hortense
   Spillers. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985.