Women In Antebellum America essays

Women In Antebellum America essays The ideal antebellum woman is a far cry from todays woman, but of course the antebellum time period is over a century removed from todays world. The antebellum woman was expected to be a member of the proverbial cult of domesticity, a term modern historians use to describe the web of values and ideas-or ideology-pertaining to a unique feminine sphere. [1] It was argued by writers, among others, that a womans place was in the home as opposed to the a mans public world of commerce and politics. [2] In essence, antebellum society created spheres for each of the sexes. As mentioned above the feminine sphere was the home, and stepping outside of such created negative connotations, while the masculine sphere was the public world. Theses views of antebellum woman were the standard for most of the United States (US). However, keeping in mind that this was a time frame just prior to the Civil War, a womans sphere of values was given slightly different parameters depending on the part of the US she lived in. The Norths ideology included a twist which had woman working outside of the home and had woman reaching for more recognition and value. While the Souths twist was one of religion, morality and her contribution to the countrys continued success, measured by the quality of child she raised. The creation of the ideology of spheres can be seen from values brought over by the colonist. In such, their ideals were based on the notion that God intended for woman and men to be different. Both were meant to labor, but they were meant to labor at different tasks.[3] Some of theses difference were based on social as well as economic life. Woman contributed to the household estate, but men were its owners. Labor may have been a gender-neutral term in colonial culture but, authority and property were masculine concepts, while dependence and subordination were clearly fem...