The 19th Century True Woman

The nineteenth century feminine norm spelled out the rules of Victorian society for women. Ideal women belonged to a cult of True Womanhood. Woman suffrage images argued for or against these ideas in the early twentieth century.

A True Woman possessed four virtues by which she was judged:

• Piety or Religion – God was the source of a woman’s moral strength and virtuous character. A woman could do church work without abandoning her proper sphere, her home. 

• Purity - A woman must retain her sexual innocence for marriage. Otherwise, she would lose her virtue and her mind. Purity was the source of women's power to persuade men. 

• Submission - Marriage was considered as from God and necessary for woman's happiness. Women must submit to their husbands and become mothers. 

• Domesticity – Women must provide the family with comfort and happiness and take care of the home. They must create beauty, act as a nurse, perform housework, cook, and tend the children.
  

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Woman's Sphere is in the Home

Wearing old-fashioned clothes, this true woman looks content as she sits in her rocking chair and threads a needle. Samples of her needlework, a doily and a patchwork quilt block, show the beauty she has created for her home.  

                                                                             - Pro-suffrage Valentine postcard

Woman's Sphere is in the Home. Postcard. Date Unknown. Int. Art Publishers. Palczewski, Catherine H. Postcard Archive. University of Northern Iowa. Cedar Falls, IA.

Get Thee Behind Me, (Mrs.) Satan!

A wife walks the path of the true woman. She carries a drunken husband and her children. The devil, a radical feminist, carries a sign; “Be saved by free love." The wife stays true to the feminine norm, saying, "I'd rather travel the hardest path of matrimony than follow your footsteps." 

                                                                               - Anti-suffrage political cartoon

Get Thee Behind Me, Mrs. Satan. Wood Engraving by Thomas Nast. Published in Harper's Weekly, Feb. 17, 1872. Illustrations and political cartoons by Thomas Nast. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95512460/

Woman: Queen of the Home

Sitting on a cook stove for her throne, a woman wears the 'crown' of true womanhood. She holds a broom, while pots and pans steam around her. She appears unhappy. Caption reads: "Queen of the Home, say the Anti-Suffragists, Yes, Queen of a Cook-Stove Throne."  

                                                                                - Pro-suffrage political cartoon

Woman: Queen of the Home. Artist, K.R. Chamberlain.Photomechanical print. Published in Puck Magazine, Dec. 5, 1914.Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011660525/