The Ideal Of Womanhood In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

13 Pages 3206 Words

The Cult of True Womanhood, was presented to women of the nineteenth century by women’s magazines, annuals, and religious literature (Welter 151). Women were made to believe that all would be lost if she violated this restrictive feminine code. Although strong voices were raised against this view of women, they did not represent the views by which most men and women were guided in their daily lives. Forced to suppress their innermost desires and feelings, women were powerless to control their own destinies.
When a woman married, her wealth passed to her husband. In lower- and middle-class societies, if a woman happened to work after marriage, her earnings also belonged to her husband. The idea was that a woman had to stay dependent on a man, first as a daughter, later as a wife. A man virtually owned his wife and children as he did his material possessions.
A woman’s own expectations were meek because neither her family nor society expected her to prepare for a future other than that of marriage and motherhood. Girls were made to understand early that the only door open to a respectable life was that of marriage. To remain single was thought to be a disgrace. Therefore, they depended upon their looks – according to the ideals of men, charm, and domestic skills. They learned from their mother’s example and teaching that cooking, cleaning, and caring for children was the behavior expected of them when they grew up.
Cultural pressure for women to become wives and mothers prevented many talented women from attending college or pursuing a career. A woman’s appearance and her ability to acquire the proper social graces were considered of vital importance. Formal education for females was secondary to that for males. The general opinion was that an education was wasted on a woman. In America girls learned to read and write at dame schools. They could only attend the master’s schools for boys when there wa...