Preceding History

PRECEDING HISTORY

When one looks back at the history of the 1920’s, they may initially see the happy, liberating freedom that was associated with this time.  World War One ended and as a result people responded with enthusiasm and joy as families reunited and the lives of Americans were changing.  This time was an exceptional turnaround in regards to women and their rights.  This freedom, however, did not come without a great deal of controversy.  For humans, change can bring about a certain level of uneasiness or anxiety.  The drastic changes that occurred in regards to women during the end of the 19th century into the turn of the 20th century, left many people, especially the older generation, disconcerted.  It is important to take a step back in time before this about-face in American history took place to recognize and understand the magnitude of this women’s evolution.   

            Going back to the early 1800’s and the Civil War era, the rise of businesses, new industries and professions created a new American middle class. What once were rural communities, now flourished into thriving cities.  Middle class families consisted of husbands who worked in offices, as teachers, lawyers, physicians, factory managers and others.  A middle class man in the nineteenth century did not have to earn financially what he needed to be able to survive.  The men could work to obtain various services or goods while the women and children stayed in the home.  The common view of men was to be the sole support of the family.  The work world was seen as rough and full of violence and temptation.  Women were seen as delicate and fraile creatures.  It was a fear that if women ventured out in the work world they would fall into the dangers that were prevalent there; therefore men and women had their separate spheres in which they lived and operated.  The common perception was that women were to stay protected in their own private realm that was their home.  These views and connotations for what women should be and do became what is called “The Cult of Domesticity” or “True Womanhood”.  This system outlined four basic qualities or virtues that women should hold.  These virtues were piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity.

1.Piety:  Women were expected to be spiritual up keepers in their homes.  They were believed to have a certain spiritual disposition.  “The modern young woman of the 1820’s and 1830’s was thought of as a new Eve working with God to bring the world out of sin through her suffering, through her pure, and passionless love.”[2]

2.Purity: a very highly revered virtue.  Women without purity were not considered women at all, but were considered to be a lower form of being.  Sexual purity was of highest priority.  Women were to be proper in all their associations with the opposite sex.  Preceding the 20th century, America went into a purity craze.  “This is when Americans began to talk about limbs for legs (even when referring to the legs of chairs) and white meat instead of breast meat (in fowl)--this is the language of repression.”[3]

3.Submissiveness: Women were not to be independant or unruly.  Women

were to rely on their husbands for all their support.  They were to submit to their husbands will and the social customs of society.  Women were to be obedient in every aspect, and especially to their husbands.  They were believed to be inferior in intelligence, strength and wisdom, therefore placing their role as passive bystanders.

4.Domesticity: A woman's sacred place was the home.  The home is

where the women would engage in housekeeping responsibilities.  Women were to stay away from tasks or activities that would challenge or distract them intellectually.  A woman’s work is to create a peaceful, loving environment where children could be reared and husbands could come home to find refuge from a hard working world.[4]