Southern Women Vs. Middle-Class White Women In The South

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White women in the South occupied roles very similar to those of middle-class white women in the North. Their lives generally centered in the home, where they served as companions to and hostesses for their husbands and kids. But at the same time North and South women had very different lives. One things the cult of honor dictated that southern white men give particular importance to the defense of women. This generally meant that white men were even more dominant and white women even more subordinate in southern culture than they were in the North. George Fitzhugh wrote, “Women, like children, have but one right and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the obligation to obey.” Almost all Southern women lived on