http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/catherine.htm
After researching Catherine Beecher, her article on housekeeping makes a lot more sense. Learning that she grew up in the early 1800s makes me feel like her article was a lot less oppressive towards women, and more truthful in general. In that time, a woman's place really was in the home and no where else. Since women had so little options of where they could go and jobs they could have, it makes sense for Beecher to want to have some rules for creating the 'perfect home' under her cheerful tones and rules. This 'cult of domesticity' was the main doctrine for women in that day. Her mother died when Catherine was young, so Catherine had a lot of practice taking care of her home. What I read explained a lot to me about her background, and it provided grounds for the arguments she tries to make about women and their respective 'niche.'
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