A woman's place was in the home. A woman's role was to be busy at those morally uplifting tasks aimed at maintaining and fulfilling her piety and purity.

 

 Housework was deemed such an uplifting task. Godey's Ladies Book argued, "There is more to be learned about pouring out tea and coffee than most young ladies are willing to believe." Needlework and crafts were also approved activities which kept women in the home, busy about her tasks of wifely duties and childcare, keeping the home a cheerful, peaceful place which would attract men away from the evils of the outer world.