The Family Unit
The early stages of development in many economies is characterized by family-based production. The term "family economy" can be used to describe the family as an economic unit. In the early, preindustrial era, technology was limited and most economic activity took place within the household; production and distribution was organized by custom and tradition. High mortality rates and low productivity meant that on the farms and in towns, life was short and living conditions were harsh.
The family economic unit is dependent on the specialized labor of family members. The family was a multigenerational producer with capital and land provided by older generations and labor provided by younger generations. Goods were produced not only for home consumption but also to sell and trade in the market. The family economy supplied agricultural products, manufactured goods, and provided services.
Industrialization
During the postindustrial age, the family as an economic unit changed. The family transformed from being a unit of production to being a unit of consumption. This new era of industrialization altered farming to require fewer people, therefore children were no longer viewed as economic assets but rather as liabilities. Industrialization further contributed to the demise of the family economy where the capitalist market encouraged production in large-scale factories, farms, and mines. Wage labor became common, and family members no longer worked together but rather used the wages they had earned to buy goods that they consumed as a family. The Industrial Revolution, starting in the nineteenth century and extending into the twentieth, is seen as the force that changed the family economic unit and is credited with the creation of the "modern family."
Separate Spheres
"Separate spheres" refers to an ideology that defines and prescribes different realms for women and men. Culturally originating in Europe and North America, the distinct ideology emerged during the Industrial Revolution, although the basic idea of gendered separation of spheres is much older. The notion of separate spheres dictates that men, based primarily on their biological makeup as well as on 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. The shift during the Industrial Revolution from family as producer to family as consumer, from work being done together in the same spaces to work being done in centralized factories and businesses, contributed to this ideology.
The idea that women should inhabit a separate, domestic sphere has been extant in Western thought for centuries, extending as far back as the ancient Greeks. In Politics, Aristotle described two separate spheres in Greek society: the home (oikos) and the city (polis). Women were confined to the private realm of the oikos while men occupied the public sphere of the polis.
Biological Determinism
The separation between female and male spheres was heavily influenced by biological determinism, the notion that women and men are naturally suitable for different social roles due to their biological and genetic makeup. The idea of biological determinism was popular during the Age of Enlightenment and among such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau who argued that women were inherently different from men and should devote themselves to reproduction and domesticity. Women were considered passive, dependent on men, and due to their reproductive capacity, ill-suited for life outside of the domestic realm. Rousseau described women's primary duties in Emile, or On Education, stating that, "women's entire education should be planned in relation to men. To please men, to be useful to them, to win their love and respect, to raise them as children, to care for them as adults, correct and console them, make their lives sweet and pleasant; these are women's duties in all ages and these are what they should be taught from childhood."
Other Influences
The popular beliefs about inherent gender differences remained deeply embedded in popular consciousness throughout the Progressive Era. By the early twentieth century, however, dissident anthropologists and other social scientists began to challenge the biological determination of human behavior, revealing great similarities between men and women and suggesting that many gender differences were socially constructed. Despite these new insights and social and economic changes—such as women's entry into the labor force—the "separate spheres" ideology did not disappear. 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 such as medicine and law, and discouragement of women obtaining higher education. Strong support for the separation of spheres came from anti-suffragists who relied on the notion of inherent sexual differences to argue that women were unfit for political participation.
The Cult of Domesticity
The "cult of domesticity" was a term for the prevailing value system among the upper and middle classes during the nineteenth century in the United States and Great Britain. This value system emphasized new ideas about femininity, the woman's role within the home, and the dynamics of work and family. "True women" were supposed to possess four cardinal virtues: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. The women and men who most actively promoted these standards were generally white Protestants who lived in New England and the northeastern United States. The cult of domesticity revolved around women being the center of the family; they were considered, "the light of the home."
Although all women were supposed to emulate this ideal of femininity, black, working-class, and immigrant women often were excluded from the definition of "true women" because of social prejudice.
Prescriptive literature advised women on how to transform their homes into domestic sanctuaries for their husbands and children. Women were the center of the domestic sphere and expected to fulfill the roles of a calm and nurturing mother; a loving and faithful wife; and a passive, delicate, and virtuous creature. These women also were expected to be pious and religious, teaching those around them Christian beliefs, and were expected to inspire and support their husbands unfailingly.
The characteristics of a "true woman" were described in sermons and religious texts, as well as in women's magazines. In the United States, Peterson's Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book were the most widely circulated women's magazines and were popular among both women and men. Magazines that promoted the values of the cult of domesticity faired better financially than competing magazines that offered a more progressive view in terms of women's roles. With a circulation of 150,000 by 1860, Godey's reflected and supported the ideals of the cult of true womanhood. The magazine's paintings and pictures illustrated the four virtues, often showing women with children or behind husbands. The publication also equated womanhood with motherhood and with being a wife, declaring that the "perfection of womanhood (...) is the wife and mother." The magazine presented motherhood as a woman's natural and most satisfying role, and encouraged women to find their fulfillment and contributions to society strictly within the home.
Godey's Lady's Book cover, June 1867
Godey's Lady's Book was a highly influential women's magazine that reinforced the values of the cult of domesticity.