The Women's Suffrage Movement - Report Example

CULT OF TRUE WOMANHOOD (19th Century Social Reform Agenda) of (affiliation) Location of February 19, Introduction The nineteenth century was a period of rapid change all across the world, but especially more so in the Western countries, in particular in Great Britain and the United States of America. This was a time of the decline of prevailing empires like that of the French empire, the Chinese empire, the Mughal empire, the Spanish empire and also the rise of new empires like the British empire (after it defeated the Spanish naval fleet in a decisive battle and gained naval supremacy), the Russian empire (it expanded rapidly into the central and eastern Asian landmass), the empire of Japan (which aspired to join the Western powers in the acquisition of colonies), the German empire as it expanded into Africa, and in particular, of the United States of America as a global power in its own right, by acquiring the colonies of Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Great Britain contributed to global progress during this period by its two remarkable contributions to world history, the imposition of a period of peace known as Pax Britannica due to its military supremacy and the start of the Industrial Revolution in England and gave rise to a new economic system of capitalism that replaced an ancient economic system of feudalism based on land ownership as the source of wealth. It was a time of great flux due to advances in medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, metallurgy, mining, electricity generation, and technological inventions such as the steam engine that produced major industries like the railroads, steamships for ocean travel, and the industrial factories which produced automobiles that greatly facilitated land travel. It was a time of prosperity and the population of the Western world doubled to around 400 million in a short span of time. Amidst all the excitement produced by rapid changes, the Cult of True Womanhood became a counterweight to preserve the desirable but vanishing values of a bygone era when women were confined to domesticity and this influenced the agenda of a reform movement such as womens suffrage and later, feminism. Discussion The Cult of True Womanhood was a movement that arose as a reaction to the challenges and perceived threats brought about by the changes during the Industrial Revolution in which dynamic changes took place in the political, economic, and social spheres; its stated aims were to preserve the old-world values of what is considered as an ideal woman. It emphasized the virtues of femininity which are piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness; the movement sought to put an ideal woman in the proper place, which is within the home and family only. In other words, this social movement tried to perpetuate the dominant role of the male (husbands and fathers within the context of the spousal and family relationship) by claiming that “true women” do not seek a role outside the confines of home and family but only serve as wives and mothers. Any role outside or larger than being a wife and mother is considered as not that of a real or true woman as any true woman will gladly serve her husband by being submissive and to be a good mother to any offspring produced by such a marital union. This emphasis on roles of domesticity can be illustrated by the popularity of womens magazines such as Godeys Ladys Book which confined its topics to such matters as family health, female hygiene, home remedies, cooking recipes, piano lessons, sheet music, fashion, and handicrafts like knitting and sewing. Put differently, one will notice how books and magazines of this period in the nineteenth century encouraged women to read and absorb these topics by heart in order to be considered as a true woman deserving of respect and love within the home and family. What is conspicuously lacking is any discussion of anything political in nature. Godeys Ladys Book (published in the years 1830 to 1896), “was intended to entertain, inform, and educate women on their role as a helpmate for the male . . . “ and editor Sarah J. Hale wrote on the notion of a “womens sphere.” Demographics – this movement of so-called true womanhood was supposed to be an all- encompassing movement that should have applied to all women in America and in Great Britain, but in reality, its members were confined to only the middle- and upper-classes of society. It was in effect an exclusionary movement as only white females who also happened to be Protestant were admitted as members of this movement. This cult was therefore also exhibiting the forms of bigotry and prejudice because the black women, immigrant women, and working-class women were not included. It can be said this cult was a gender-based discriminatory cult. Ideals, virtues, and personal values of femininity applied only to white, Protestant, and well-off women. Specific time period – the Cult of True Womanhood had its heyday during the period of 1820 up to the start of the American Civil War (1861) when the dominating feminist ideology of what constitutes acceptable behavior was very prevalent among white middle-upper classes of society in America and Great Britain (Carby 23). Its basic tenets was defined and characterized as the boundaries provided by the four virtues mentioned earlier (of piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness) by which a woman judged herself and also as judged by her husband, by her relatives and neighbors, and that of the larger society. True womanhood consisted of abiding by these four tenets by which a real woman was promised happiness and power for life. This was a very influential ideology, especially in the southern states where slave practices were prevalent. Geographic area – the cult originated and its values and views were actively promoted in the white, Protestant societies of the New England states and in other parts of the northeastern seaboard of the United States of America although its was also practiced to a limited extent in the southern parts of the country. Its coverage encompassed Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, where the original English settlers lived. Effects on the labor market – the true womanhood ideal of the white female as weak, soft, and vulnerable confined women to doing domestic chores at home (without pay) such that only a minuscule 5% of married women dared to enter the labor force as against some 40% of single women who joined the market-oriented labor force as paid workers and laborers. This had a very negative effect or impact on the contributions of women to overall national productivity as the period of the cult coincided with the fastest rise of capitalism in America during the Industrial Revolution when many factory jobs were supposedly available for anybody willing to work. It effectively reduced a womans status to being secondary to her husband, instead of the prior claim of editor Sarah J. Hale that women are the new centers of power. Its deleterious effects were felt whenever a woman lost her husband, either through death, divorce, or desertion. Her financial independence was greatly compromised and the cult was both regressive and repressive in this regard because it did not promote womens rights but demoted them. Many of the laws passed at around this time reflected the ideology of the cult; women were prohibited in many kinds of jobs, not allowed to engage in overtime or nighttime work as these interfered with their primary jobs at home, and their working hours were severely limited by legislation. The early periods of the American economys transition to a capitalist system reflected in large part the absence of married women in the labor force. A remarkable lack of any academic or literary texts of their contribution to the national economy is sorely lacking precisely because most women were not in the paid or market-oriented labor force due to the constraints imposed by a misconceived notion of what constitutes a true woman; any woman who aspired to join this labor force was portrayed as not really feminine and either criticized or ostracized by society. In effect, a big chapter of nineteenth-century American labor history is missing (Boydston 183). Reaction to the Cult of True Womanhood – the glorification of the womans role in home, family, and society as a submissive and subservient marital or conjugal partner did not sit well in some quarters, especially among the women who had more progressive ideas of their own. Many of these women resented the relegation of their status to being second-class citizens by using the subjective subterfuge of making women comply with the ideals promoted by the cult. One effect of the cults influence was that good women should ideally devote their time and energy to doing unpaid domestic work, thereby reducing housewifery to being a drudging type of work which is also another form of slavery. The rise of a free-market capitalist-oriented society in America had effectively excluded most women from doing any meaningful work that paid decent wages. The arduous and repetitive labor that women contributed at the home became invisible during this period in the nineteenth century when capitalism in America was at its most robust as the Cult of True Womanhood created an artificial dichotomy based on gender and market labor. The confining and limiting ideals of the cult prevented many women from attaining their fullest potential they had deserved. This biased viewpoint created a situation wherein a mans worth was measured in the wages he earned while the woman staying at home was belittled and the work a woman did at home did not count as real work at all, although it persisted for a long time. The cult created the myth of a proper lady whose education was limited only to the arts, learning a few foreign languages, doing proper steps of an elegant dance, and sing like the siren (Thomas para. 1). Female education was geared towards eventual motherhood which was often portrayed as the best and most satisfactory role for women. It is a natural role for the women to be wives and mothers rather than work outside the home as paid workers. Women were heavily inculcated as suited for parenting and so many compromised by working as school teachers. Relation to the womens movement – some women rejected the ideals of the cult and so tried to promote their own concept of self-realization through womens rights such as fighting for the right to vote (suffrage) when white men in America were granted universal suffrage back in the Jacksonian period (1812-1850). These women thought it was the right time to fight for their own civil liberties as well through full equality with the men. A newer ideal of the good woman soon emerged during this time, that of the New Woman, who was involved and engaged in the larger social issues of the day. The tail end of the cult movement soon emerged in the more activist Progressive Era when women advocated for real social and political reforms. Conclusion The womens suffrage movement (suffragettes) soon evolved into a full-blown feminist movement that challenged male dominance at home and the patriarchal hierarchy of society. The women wanted to be full partners in nation building and not get obscured by staying at home so a new mentality had emerged that portrayed women as fully capable as the men in any kind of work. The Cult of True Womanhood created the seeds of the liberal feminist movement that in turn was the basis for the Civil Rights Movement of black Americans to also seek full equality with white people. Women soon joined the paid labor market in greater numbers than before. When women won the right to vote, they also realized they have political power to use in effecting needed reforms in society and politics; several of these women became activists. Real women were those who stood for their rights, such as in using sex education in schools to help young women understand their bodies, physiologically, physically, and mentally (Clarke 9). This viewpoint was the precursor of the main principle in feminist theory and thinking, that women own their bodies and should have full control over them, such as in issues like abortion. Reference Carby, Hazel V. (1987). Reconstructing womanhood: The emergence of the Afro-American woman novelist. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press US. Read More