Private Sphere

Examples of Private Sphere in the following topics:

• Women and Democracy

  • During the early nineteenth century, women were mainly relegated to the private sphere through the "cult of domesticity."

• Republican Motherhood

  • Republican Motherhood, while maintaining women's role in the private sphere, gave women more rights to education.
  • Women were expected to focus on domestic issues, but Locke's treatises helped to engender an appreciation for the value of the domestic sphere and were influential in highlighting the important role of women in society.
  • Greater educational access included making subjects of classical education (such as mathematics and philosophy), which were once studied only by males, integral to curricula at public and private schools for girls.
  • On the one hand, the concept reinforced the idea of a domestic women's sphere separate from the public world of men.
  • On the other hand, it encouraged the education of women and imbued their "traditional" sphere with a dignity and importance that had been missing from previous conceptions of women's work.

• Gender and Politics

  • Revolutionary-era American society limited women's actions to the domestic or private sphere.
  • They continued to be relegated to the home and domestic spheres, and were unwelcome in political and economic contexts.
  • The ideal Whig woman would help the patriotic cause from inside her separate sphere, engaging in domestic chores and preparing to educate the next generation according to the values espoused by the men who fought for independence.

• The Family Economy: Women and Children

  • "Separate Spheres" is an ideology that defines and prescribes separate spheres for women and men.
  • The notion of separate spheres dictates that men, based primarily on their biological makeup as well as the will of God, inhabit the public sphere--the world of politics, economy, commerce, and law.
  • Women's "proper sphere," according to the ideology, is the private realm of domestic life, child-rearing, housekeeping , and religious education.
  • Women were confined to the private realm of the oikos while men occupied the public sphere of the polis.
  • Women's confinement to the private sphere was reinforced by cultural and legal arrangements, such as the lack of women's suffrage, legal prohibitions against women undertaking professions like medicine and law, and discouragement from obtaining higher education.

• The Declaration of Independence

  • For the most part, Revolutionary-era women’s contributions to politics were limited to the private realm, and women were dependent upon male relatives to voice their concerns and opinions in the public realm through a centuries-old practice termed “coverture”.
  • In this way, Republican Motherhood, though still relegating women’s contributions to the domestic, or private, sphere, raised the importance of women’s civic contributions on a national level and encouraged the further education of women.

• Opposition from the Courts

  • Nebbia also holds a particular significance: it was the one case in which the Court abandoned its jurisprudential distinction between the "public" and "private" spheres of economic activity, an essential distinction in the court's analysis of state police power.

• The Inventions of the Telephone and Electricity

  • It aided in the development of suburbs and the separation of homes and businesses, but also became the reason for the separation between women occupying the private sphere and men in the public sphere.
  • The autonomy was celebrated as women were able to develop new relationships and nurture pre-existing ones in their private lives.

• The Language of Liberty

  • American colonial governments were a local enterprise, with deep roots in a given community: with elected assemblies directly influencing the development of a wide range of public and private businesses.
  • Therefore, Anglo-American colonies were extensive communal cultures, centered on the civic and political sphere.

• Colonial Government

  • For instance, elected bodies, specifically the assemblies and county governments, directly determined the development of a wide range of public and private business.
  • They were also involved in the oversight of roads, taverns, schools, and relief of the poor, making them fundamental to the development of public and private enterprises in a particular region.
  • Unlike Europe, where aristocratic families and established Churches dominated the political sphere, American political culture was relatively open to economic, social, religious, ethnic, and geographical interests (although still excluding the participation of American Indians, women, and African Americans).
  • Hence, the colonial American political system was remarkably different from Europe, where widespread public participation in the political sphere by free white males was expected and enjoyed.

• Changing Roles for Women

  • During World War II, the traditional gender division of labor changed, as the "home" or domestic female sphere expanded to include the "home front".
  • Meanwhile, the public sphere—the male domain—was redefined as the international stage of military action.
  • Captain Anne Lentz was its first commissioned officer, and Private Lucille McClarren its first enlisted woman; both joined in 1943.
  • Describe the changing roles of women as the "home" or domestic sphere was expanded to include the "home front."