What political behaviors did most 19th century Americans expect from women?

In the first half of the 19th century, a feminist trend developed in the homeland of democracy - in the United States, due to the increased activation of political participation of women associated with the organization of public appearances for the abolition of slavery. Under petitions sent to government structures capable of making appropriate political decisions, there were usually many women signatures. However, women could not exert real political pressure due to the lack of formal political rights.

The exclusion of women from political discourse was based on the recognition of a clear dichotomy of public and private spaces in which a woman was associated with the private sphere, and a man with the public. The public sphere was characterized as an arena of freedom and civil rights, access to which was open to men.

Since women were associated with a private subordinate sphere, they were functionally excluded from participation in political institutions that determined political life. Hierarchical relations were considered as natural rules in the private sphere, and the exclusion of women from the public sphere stemmed from their "natural" inability to transgress beyond their biological and economic subordination in the domestic sphere.