The nineteenth-century societal ideal of separate spheres for men and women was predicated on the assumption that men and women had very different natures. Men were seen as both physically and mentally suited to the rough-and-tumble world of economic competition. It was men, therefore, that would provide the income that made the middle-class lifestyle possible, doing battle on behalf of their families in the office and the marketplace. Women, in contrast, were soft and yielding. Providers of comfort and care by nature, their job was to create a home that was a refuge for their husbands from the rigors of the outside world. It was the wife’s role to remind her husband through her behavior, appearance, and the home she made of the values that made the struggle for advancement worthwhile. Thus, in theory, men and women formed a partnership, with each making a contribution to their joint achievement of the middle-class ideal.