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The American Woman of the Early Nineteenth Century

Perceptions of Women in the 19th Century
During the early 1800s, Americans generally believed that there was a definite difference in character between the sexes -- man was active, dominant, assertive, and materialistic, while woman was religious, modest, passive, submissive, and domestic. As a result, there developed an ideal of American womanhood, or a "cult of true womanhood" as denoted by historian Barbara Welter. This cult, evident in women's magazines and religious literature of the day, espoused four basic attributes of female character: piety, purity, submissiveness,domesticity.
1) Religion/Piety was the "core of woman's virtue, the source of her strength" (Welter, 21). Religion was a gift of God, given so that the "Universe might be Enlightened, Improved, and Harmonized by WOMAN!! (Philadelphia, 1840, quoted in Welter, 22). Women were expected to be the "handmaids of the Gospel," serving as a purifying force in the......

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Approximate Word Count: 2407
Approximate Pages: 10 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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