Cult of True Womanhood

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Rebecca Saulsbury Bravard (Florida Southern College)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

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Literature Topic

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Date of occurrence 1820-1900

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United States (Location)

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The period 1820 to 1870 in the United States was marked by vigorous and widespread debate on woman's roles and her proper vocation. It was also a period that marked the emergence of the woman's rights movement following the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. In spite of the lack of agreement over what woman's proper role should be, an ideal of True Womanhood or Separate Spheres appears to have been a pervasive paradigm in antebellum America, especially in middle-class New England. Indeed, it seems to have produced a kind of efficient and adaptable .meta-language. by which to describe and interpret women's experience and guide their behaviour, as can be seen in contemporary texts such as novels, treatises, and advice manuals, but also in the work of writers looking back to this era,…

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984 words

Citation: Saulsbury Bravard, Rebecca. "Cult of True Womanhood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=242, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Cult of True Womanhood

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