Women's Rights v. Cult of Domesticity
The actions of the women's rights movement in the antebellum period set an example for later women's rights movement groups. During this period, women were not treated equally, causing them to create a reform group to change their treatment. The women's rights reform created nationalism in the country. Men and women began to work together to change the stereotype of a women's role in the household and change women's treatment. Although women's rights were not completely equal to men's after the reform groups met (Seneca Falls), the issue of inequality between men and women was openly discussed, and there was action towards fixing the inequality.
Expectations for women: “Cult of Domesticity”: (Women's roles)
Expectations for women: “Cult of Domesticity”: (Women's roles)
- The "cult of domesticity" involved four parts: piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity(characteristics proper young women at the time should have).
- Piety: Religion is a good thing for women, women should practice it in the home.
- Purity: Women should remain pure until their wedding night.
- Submissiveness: Women should be passive bystanders, submit to fate, duty, God and men. Women should be weak and timid, in need of a protector and dependent.
- Domesticity: Women are responsible for the care of the home and the children. They are the moral leaders in the home, and responsible for educating the children.
- 1848: The idea of a women's rights convention originated with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott being denied seating and voting rights at the 1840 World Antislavery Convention in London because they were women. Stanton, Mott, Martha Wright, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann McClintock, all experienced with women's rights, announced that the Seneca Falls Convention would take place in Seneca Falls, New York on July 20th.
- The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in history. The convention included participants who were reformers with organizational experience.
- On the first day of the convention, the leading feminists created a document similar to the Declaration of Independence called the "Declaration of Sentiments" that declared "all men and women are created equal." 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration.
- The convention led to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony later campaigning
for equal voting, legal, and property rights for women.