<P> The social conscience that was raised in the early 19th century helped to elevate the awareness of mental illness and its treatment . A leading advocate of reform for mental illness was Dorothea Dix, a Massachusetts woman who made an intensive study of the conditions that the mentally ill were kept in . Dix's report to the Massachusetts state legislature along with the development of the Kirkbride Plan helped to alleviate the miserable conditions for many of the mentally ill . Although these facilities often fell short of their intended purpose, reformers continued to follow Dix's advocacy and call for increased study and treatment of mental illness . </P> <P> Zagarri (2007) argues the Revolution created an ongoing debate on the rights of women and created an environment favorable to women's participation in politics . She asserts that for a brief decades, a "comprehensive transformation in women's rights, roles, and responsibilities seemed not only possible but perhaps inevitable" (p. 8) However the opening of possibilities also engendered a backlash that actually set back the cause of women's rights and led to a greater rigidity that marginalized women from political life . </P> <P> During the building of the new republic, American women were able to gain a limited political voice in what is known as republican motherhood . Under this philosophy, as promoted by leaders such as Abigail Adams, women were seen as the protectors of liberty and republicanism . Mothers were charged with passing down these ideals to their children through instruction of patriotic thoughts and feelings . During the 1830s and 1840s, many of the changes in the status of women that occurred in the post-Revolutionary period--such as the belief in love between spouses and the role of women in the home--continued at an accelerated pace . This was an age of reform movements, in which Americans sought to improve the moral fiber of themselves and of their nation in unprecedented numbers . The wife's role in this process was important because she was seen as the cultivator of morality in her husband and children . Besides domesticity, women were also expected to be pious, pure, and submissive to men . These four components were considered by many at the time to be "the natural state" of womanhood, echoes of this ideology still existing today . The view that the wife should find fulfillment in these values is called the Cult of True Womanhood or the Cult of Domesticity . </P> <P> In the South, tradition still abounded with society women on the pedestal and dedicated to entertaining and hosting others . This phenomenon is reflected in the 1965 book, The Inevitable Guest, based on a collection of letters by friends and relatives in North and South Carolina to Miss Jemima Darby, a distant relative of the author . </P>

In what ways did the frontier affect the development of democracy in the united states