Perfection Era
Throughout history, women have played crucial roles in history. During the Second Great Awakening, female converts outnumbered males by about three to two. Usually the woman was the first convert of the family and the men who converted were related to women who had previously converted (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stoff, 2005).
Social changes during the Second Great Awakening played an important role in how women were viewed. Parents no longer arranged marriages of their children; couples were beginning to wed on the basis of affection rather than a marriage arranged by the parents. Women depended on marriage as an essential part of her economic security. With the uncertainty of the social changes, many women between the ages of 12 and 25 were drawn toward religion. Joining a church heightened a young woman’s sense of purpose. Women who were a part of the church were considered respectable, and this increased her chances of marriage (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stoff, 2005).
The era of change brought a different set of problems to women. Most men now worked outside the home in factories that made items like cloth, soap, and candles that women had once made and sold to help supplement the family income (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stoff, 2005).
As the workplace took on a whole new social identity, women were domestic and her home was her haven away from the workaday world. She was considered the center of the home teaching love, comfort and moral values to her husband and children (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stoff, 2005).
Women, who were considered morally strong, were held to a higher standard of sexual purity. Men’s sexual infidelity, was not condoned, but brought no lasting shame. Women who engaged in sexual relations before marriage or were unfaithful after marriage were considered an everlasting disgrace. Under this double standard, women were supposed to be passive, submissive and submerge their identities to those...