IntroductionThe antebellum period brought many changes to American society. One of these changes involved the way American households were organized. Robert Max Jackson argues in his discussion of gender inequality that until the 1820s, a patriarchal ideology predominated in American homes, giving fathers absolute authority; they ran their households as “community enterprises” in which husband and wife worked together to earn a living. However, from the 1820s the economy grew rapidly due to the Industrial Revolution and many men began working outside the home in industrial and commercial businesses, leaving their wives at home to work. carry out domestic tasks. Thanks to this "separation of the spheres", these wives, who were no longer under the constant observation and influence of their husbands, acquired the new identity of "real woman" in which they were expected to "spend their time raise their children. children and manage their homes” (Jackson 199). As Barbara Welter points out, a “cult of true womanhood” emerged among the middle classes in which “real women” were expected to hold “the four cardinal virtues of piety, purity, submission, and domesticity” (152). This ideology of domesticity, as opposed to patriarchal ideology, prescribed the conduct of women throughout the 19th century. The influence of the ideology of domesticity was not only limited to people's private lives, but also became apparent in literature as the ideology of domesticity was already spreading. in the popular sentimental novels of the time. The 19th century gave rise to many women's coming-of-age novels that transformed girls into "real women." In 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables, a piece of paper ......erley. Girls only? Genre and popular juvenile fiction in Britain 1880-1910. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990. Salah, Christina. “A Ministry of Plums: Cooking as a Path to Spiritual Maturity in the Anne Books of LM Montgomery.” 100 Years of Anne with an “e”: The study of the centenary of Anne of Green Gables. Ed. Holly Blackford. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 2009. Stimpson, Catharine R. “Reading for Love: Canons, Paracanons, and Whistling Jo March.” New Literary History 21.4 (1990): 957-76. Waterston, Elizabeth. Kindling Spirit: Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery. Canadian Fiction Studies 19. Montreal: ECW Press, 1993. Watson, Victor. The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Welter, Barbara. "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860." American Quarterly 18 (1966): 151–174.