Barbara Welter The Cult Of True Womanhood

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The conditions of the women in the United States during the nineteenth century, woman were basically expected to obey their husbands and pressure the role of housewife. "The Cult of True Womanhood" by Barbara Welter allows a person to understand the life for a woman during this time. Most women write about fighting for women’s right in the nations, where Welter decided to take a different approach. The purpose of “The Cult of True Womanhood” was to educate people about the life of a woman in the 19th century. According to Welter’s article, she provides information about womanhood and the life of domestication with occupation as the ideal housewife.

Welters provide a sufficient amount of information on womanhood in the United States during the 19th century. According to Welters, back in the day women were expected to assume the role of housewife; the men had the role of providing for their family. Women seemed to have been predestined as homemakers. Jokingly, it was thought to be in their blood. In this article Welter mentioned that a woman was expected to be religious in order to be considered a “true” woman. “One reason religion was valued was that it did not take a woman away from her ‘proper sphere,’ her home” (Welter 174). A woman’s life also revolved around their faithfulness to God. Above …show more content…

“Purity was as essential as piety to a Young woman, its absence as unnatural and unfeminine. Without it she was, in fact, no woman at all, but a member of some lower order” (Welter 175). Welter talks about the way the woman were treated by their spouses, which was not in slightest morally right. According to Welters the wife should never leave and “obey” her husband no matter what the consequences were, even if they were abused, cheated on or

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