Cult of True Womanhood

The Cult of True Womanhood refers to the idea that a woman's space is in the home and the realm of domesticity and family. Thus, "true women" are supposed to be domestic, demure, pure, and submissive. The ideal woman was white and would take care of her husband and children; thus, mother- and wifehood was woman's "highest calling." In addition to its explicitly racialized representations, The Cult of True Womanhood's emphasis on the nuclear family and strict separation between familly and work life has excluded black women from achieving the status of a "true woman," thereby stigmatizing them as failing to be "good" mothers and thus "good" women.