Devil of the Domestic Sphere
Temperance, Gender, and Middle-Class Ideology, 1800-1860
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10032437 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ruth M Alexander (Colorado State University, corresponding author), Scott C Martin |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 96 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 200-200 |
| Publication date | 2009-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/27694769 |
| OpenAlex | W2023959996 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Scott C. Martin's cultural study places gender and class ideology at the center of the antebellum temperance movement. Through textual analysis of movement literature, Devil of the Domestic Sphere portrays temperance as the instrument of a nascent middle class struggling for status and stability. Temperance reformers hoped to secure worldly success by disavowing alcohol and espousing a gender ideology that cast women as domestic guardians and men as their protectors and providers. Women found in this ideology an invitation to act as moral arbiters, but, according to Martin, the gender binary of the temperance movement advantaged men more than women. Indeed, he sees in temperance a persistent strain of misogyny, evident in the questions men raised about women's virtue and moral efficacy and in efforts to limit women's activism. Misogynist doubts about women's virtue were plainly evident in temperance writers' treatment of the female drunkard, depicted as a “shameful and revolting spectacle” because she challenged faith in women's essential purity (p. 30). In addition, temperance writers advantaged men in praising the submission and loyalty of wives who were the victims of inebriate husbands. And though they praised women as moral exemplars, temperance writers urged women to model virtue without entering the public sphere or questioning men's authority. Women were praised insofar as they lacked real power; they were also unfairly chided for failing to redeem drunken husbands and sons. The darkest strand of misogyny appeared in tracts and images that portrayed women tempting men to drink
Faith · Ideology · Middle class · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public sphere · Separate spheres · Sociology · Spectacle · Theology · Virtue · American History and Culture · Gender Studies · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2016 (5) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |