The Bonds of Womanhood by Nancy Cott

The Bonds of Womanhood by Nancy CottNancy Cott, the writer and editor of The Bonds of Womanhood, aimed at analyzing the lives of Ameri prat women in the nineteenth century and also discussing on the suasion of separate spheres. She also involved true womanhood cult in the context of his book. Cotts book covers a social history that took place in New England between 1780 and 1835. Her research work covers personal narratives as sanitary as prescriptive literature. The writer was inspired by the fact that during the nineteenth century women were precedentized by men as godly m others and ideal examples of virtue. She introduced the principle of domesticity which tackles the idea of women providing a happy environment or instead sanctuary for men age at home. In most occasions, women were idealized and marginalized by men in the society. The writer in this case portrays women as domestic defenders according to the room they were being treated during that period. In this case, wom en be not treated as passive victims by the pen tho instead she uses women to denominate true womanhood by the way they actively helped in creating an ideal vision of being a woman.This paper ordain primarily focus on Nancy Cotts book The Bonds of Womanhood that covers the aspect of womans plain during the 19th century period in New England.Womens Sphere in the Bonds of WomanhoodThis book is a classic work completed by Nancy Cott relating to the history of women in the 19th century. Cott remains the best historian of conquering and womens bond. She also foresaw domesticity bond tendency that led to feminism round 20 years ago. Her work has become an inspiration to most women and creates a way through which women can be understood easily by the society. feeling at the preface of the book, issues are raised that are of contemporary vastness to every reader of this book. Cott lays most of her emphasis on the voices of women which acts as her patriarchal source when writing the book. Nancy Cott builds a sense of different forms that resulted to the oppression of women. In addition, Cott tries to highlight the role that women took in America during the age of advance(prenominal) capitalism.The author uses her collection to mark the beginning of her appreciation on the changes brought about by the growth of capitalism during the early nineteenth century in America. In her study work, Cott examines changes that occurred in the society between 1785 and 1830. The author compared different family types that existed in New England during that time period putting into consideration records and diaries written by women. Cott puts forward that a separate sphere for women was created following the market regeneration that took place in America during the early stages. The womens sphere was domesticity that behaved as a form of feminist space. Whats more is that she outlines a private sphere to indicate a separate sphere where women were positioned. With relati on to the private sphere, the authors argument is that it can also be phrased as a domesticity cult. Nancy Cott highlights that movements of proto-feminism were brought about through acts of women beat bonds via associate homemakers and churches as a result of domesticity cult in early nineteenth century.Additionally, Cotts intention was to define the role that women took before mid 19th century. She used journals and letters written by New England Women. The author incorporates several(prenominal) women aspects that took place during the late 18th century and early 19th century. Her initial part of study is the work area. She points out that looking at the sparing life story women appeared to be more secondary than men. On top of this is that a womans earnings and property were considered to belong to the husband or any other male relative. According to Cott, the work for women was more need driven as compared to mens work which was time disciplined, regulated and constrained. With time, womens work became seasonally determined which differed depending on family needs. She goes on further to accede that women who were young and unmarried had more flexibleness in terms of employment especially in teaching areas and textile mills. Nonetheless, she argues that work done was intended to generate income for the family and not for personal support.Nancy Cott keeps her post by examining the impact on women especially as they were left at home by male exodus who considered themselves as breadwinners. Her point was that while women labored more at home, men worked outside homes as a sign of toil division that was based on gender differences. The authors depend on domesticity features on the need for a womans commitment to married life and family be it an extended family or a nuclear family of close strain relations. Cotts way of thought is that during this period, the roles carried out by married women started to resemble those of men. Her exposition of domes ticity is a womans ability to manage a home, organize tasks and establish an economical household which becomes time disciplined and well regulated.With relation to Cotts findings, the role of mothers was set at a higher relief following the loss of women acting as providers and domestic manufacturers. Cott considers that the prospective of the generation to come depends on how mothers face to their children. The author foresees an increase in opportunities in fields of religious behavior and education as a result of encouragement.Women who were young and unmarried got the bump to teach girls schools. The overall idea was to support future mothers who would educate the future citizens as the number grew. This led to the growth of women scholars as well as teachers. This broadened the curricula for young women who had accomplished their education. Furthermore, new authors were hosted following an increase in literacy that came about due to increased education. This led to the expansion of publishing industry with the bulk being women. Cott continues to emphasize on how the model of religion that came into being established opportunities for the women in particular to move to the sphere of publicity as guardians for ethics and reformers.ConclusionCott focused on the theme of moral authority as seen in many families in modern society. This has caused a lot of questions to sneak among many scholars. Nancy Cott applied the concept of having womens sphere to indicate the importance of young-bearing(prenominal) gender in the society inclusive of evangelical Christianity. This promotes women in areas which they are deemed with relation to their sex. According to Cott, the bonds declared by the society for womens activities strengthened the sistership connection between women. This helped in perpetuation of the bond that restricted women in their sphere.