Cult of Domesticity

The 'cult of domesticity', was a prevailing view during the Jacksonian Era, in the United States. It is the belief that a woman's role in marriage was to:

• Maintain the home as a refuge for her husband
• Train the children
• Set a moral example for children to follow

Feminism opposed this understanding of gender roles.

The Cult of Domesticity identified the home as the "separate, proper sphere" for women, who were seen as morally superior to and purer than men and thus better suited to child-rearing. According to this view, women were also believed to be resistant to "tainting" by the increasingly competitive, Industrial world.