The Journals of Martha E. McMillan

purity in a woman was “unnatural and unfeminine,” and without it, a woman was not a woman at all - she was fallen (Welter 154). Submissiveness followed naturally from piety, too. Religion, Welter notes, was an important tool used to keep women in their “proper sphere” (153). Women were expected to be submissive because, more or less, that was the way of things, the divinely appointed order (Welter 159). Society taught women to revel in their feelings of weakness and timidity. They were meant to be this way, to be dependent on their husbands (Welter 159). In fact, women were impressed upon to view this dependency as a gift. They had the ability to passively respond to situations, rather than to have authority over them. When they did want some semblance of influence, they exercised authority by means of persuasion (Welter 161). Submission necessitated that women make themselves small: they “should ‘become as little children’ and ‘avoid a controversial spirit’” (Welter 161). They were meant to bear it. The first three virtues culminated in the last: domesticity. A woman’s place was the home. The work of the home - the cooking, cleaning, caring - was seen as an art, as an act of supreme love, even as a science. This role was tied especially to her piety: in her cooking, cleaning, and caring, a woman brought her husband back to God (Welter 162). In the home, women could fulfill their two most important duties: to be useful and beautiful (Welter 163). True Womanhood persisted as the female norm from 1820 into the 1860s. A common proclamation from the pulpit appealed to men to seek a virtuous woman. Implicit in this tone was the appeal to women - to be virtuous. But the late nineteenth century brought a period of change. The tide would soon bring in a New Woman. 177