The phrase 'cult of domesticity' is most closely associated with which century?

• A. 17th Century
• B. 18th Century
• C. 20th Century
• D. 19th Century

Answer: (D)

The idea tested is the time period most closely tied to the cult of domesticity, a mid-1800s set of beliefs that women should artisan the home, forming the moral center of the family. In the United States and Britain, this ideology framed women as guardians of virtue and domestic virtue, emphasizing four traits: piety, purity, submission, and domesticity. It rose as industrialization drew men into wage work outside the home and middle-class life came to revolve around the home as the private sphere. Because this pattern and its terminology are strongest in the 19th century, that is the period most associated with it. Earlier centuries didn’t crystallize this same organized ideology with the same emphasis, and the 20th century moves away from it as broader women's rights movements challenged these roles.