Maggie McGee09 December 2013At the beginning of the 19th century, the ideology of the “cult of domesticity” was formed. According to Maggie McGee's expert report on “The Cult of Domesticity,” this ideology was a set of conventions “that defined women's roles and their place in the social hierarchy.” Women were expected to uphold four main virtues; piety, purity, submission and domesticity. Under the cult of domesticity, women were expected to be the “moral guardians of the home and [within] society” (McGee). The woman's duty was to maintain piety and sexual purity, "submit to her husband", and take care of the "home" and children (McGee). Not only was the cult of domesticity a prominent nineteenth-century ideology, but so was the law of cover. According to Clemens Wetcholowsky, in his expert opinion “Coverture,” coverture was a “law” that “established” that once married women had to “form a single legal entity with [their] husbands;” thus causing them to lose all legal autonomy. Undercover, the husband gained all control over the woman's property and wealth. THE...