Domestic ideology
1 Read the introduction to the chapter Make note of the numbered questions posed in the ‘Investigation’ section, and be sure to identify the chapter's main question, referred to as “your major goal” or ‘your primary task' (or something similar). [Although you may use the sources from a previous edition of the book as evidence, you must use the “Investigation" questions as they appear in the 4th edition; they are available on the course website ]
2. Read all the sources in the chapter. Note which sources apply to each question.
3. Under the headings ‘Question #" write answers to each of the numbered questions For a strong answer, you must provide evidence/examples from the sources, in the form of quotations or other direct references, to support your daims. You should respond to all the “sub-questions" beneath each numbered question.
4. Consider the chapter’s "main problem" and, based on your answers to the questions in Step 3, decide your stance on the issue. Write a paragraph describing your position, label it your “Thesis," and put it at the top of the paper, above/before your answers from Step 3.
5. In a final section summarize your position on the main problem Explain how you reached this conclusion by briefly showing how your answers to the “Investigation" questions support your thesis. Call this paragraph the “Conclusion" and put it at the end of your paper.
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Thesis
Domestic ideology had a significant impact on women in New England during the 1930s since they were often considered as inferior compared and not equal to men, hence were denied several rights which men were entitled to. Nevertheless this resulted in the rise of women’s rights as women stood firm to demand fair and equal treatment relative to men. Since the domesticity ideology favored and supported women, it was widely accepted in the south. Both men and women had positive attitudes and perception towards it hence they were receptive of it.
Response to question 1
According to the first essay, the impact of a domestic ideology on women in New England was immense. The women of New England in the year 1835 underwent subordination to men in both society and marriage. They also endured profound disadvantage in the economy and in education, virtual impotence in politics, as well as denial of access to official power in churches they populated. Moreover, a married woman did not have legal existence apart from that of her husband. She was not allowed to execute a will on her own. Her estate, her wages and even her person became her husband’s as soon as she took her husband’s name. Moreover, women were not allowed to vote, even though everyone was subject to the laws. Women who were widowed or not married and held properly were required to submit to taxation with no representation. In the 1830s New England, there were few paid occupations which were available for women, in school-teaching, handicrafts and industry as well as housework.
The wages of women were ¼ to ½ that of what men earned in similar work. In addition, since colleges never admitted women, women could not enter any learned profession. The relationship between this ideology and the emergence of women’s rights was an issue considering that women led the first industrial strikes in the United States in the mid 1830s. In essence, this ideology to a great extent led to the emergence of the women’s rights. Women held protests on the rights of women, and middle-class women utilized the petition, their vital political tool to demand legislation that enabled married women to retain rights to their earnings and property. Academies and secondary schools that could prepare young women to teach increased. Literacy of women grew and they also entered various reform movements, to pursue objects in their own self-interest and to improve their society.
Response to question 2
According to the second essay, many Southerners embraced an ideology of domesticity even though the South did not undergo the social changes that historians assume led to its emergence in the first place. This was due to the fact that men, who wanted a refuge from the aggressiveness and competitiveness of the market, and women, who disliked their comparative decline in their status, elaborated the domesticity ideology to rationalize keeping women at home, as well as to improve the status of what they did there. A key principle of ideology of domesticity, and what actually made it appealing to many white middle-class women, maintained that women were morally superior to their male counterparts. Middle-class women, who were more and more unessential in the world of economic production and left out from a public voice, discovered in the concept of moral superiority both a source of self-esteem and a means to affect the world in general, although from the sidelines.
The promoters of the ideology of domesticity set women up as a case in point of virtuous conduct and Christian piety. This offered the 19th century woman the chance of believing herself able to exert influence over her children and husband. Women were able to have hopes that their purity and piety would have an elevated effect on the viciousness and cruelty of men. Moreover, the ideology of domesticity justified the barring of women from the public world in terms which were acceptable to nearly all men and women. More significantly, it promoted common bonds amongst women. This ideology inculcated awareness amongst women of a set of shared values and experiences specific to women and different from those of men. The wide-ranging networks of female relatives and friends that women created were important to this markedly female culture. The ideology of domesticity characterized stringent division of both private and public spheres...