Women in nineteenth century Europe were systematically excluded from positions of power in the public spheres including but not limited to political and economic domains. Thus invisible and disenfranchised, women were relegated to being priestesses in the cult of domesticity: the private sphere that was at once necessary for the maintenance of life but also restricting in its roles and functions. The cult of domesticity was open primarily to members of the white middle class: females in the province of the dominant culture. Women of color and the very poor would have been summarily exempt, as their labor duties were too valuable to be restricted to the domestic sphere. In her decisive apology for patriarchy, Ellis starts by linguistically feminizing her native England: "One of the noblest features in her national character is the domestic character of England -- the home comforts, and fireside virtues for which she is so...
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