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Public Versus Private Spheres Of Domesticity, Jessie F. Mizic

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My research is a close reading of The Awakening by Kate Chopin written in 1899 as a critique of the cult of true womanhood. While ideologies that promote the spheres of domesticity have existed for hundreds of years, it wasn’t until Barbara Welter’s 1976 article, “The Cult of True Womanhood” that the four main tenets that these ideologies were named; piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. The last Virtue in the Cult of True Womanhood is the tenet of Domesticity. This was important in establishing the realms of public and private domestic spheres for men and women during this era. Men …