19th Century Women's Roles

In The Age of Innocence, I found that the topic of women’s roles in the 19th century held a great deal of importance. In the 19th century women lived lives much differently than women of modern day. Men and women were perceived as having extremely different roles and purposes in life. Women were expected to live their lives in private, while men were able to go out freely. While men were given powerful attributes, women were given weakened attributes. Women were seen as weak, domestic, emotional, dependent and pure. If any woman exhibited character traits that opposed the typical traits of a woman, she would receive much criticism and would even be seen as less desirable to a man. These values were further enforced through a term coined by