Final answer:
Besides slavery, cultural traditions significantly shaped the lives of southern women, influencing their social roles and expectations. The antebellum reforms and movements like abolition and temperance also impacted their lives, which evolved into action against gender inequality. Education and legal rights for women slowly began to transform their societal roles as well.
Step-by-step explanation:
Besides slavery, cultural traditions significantly shaped the lives of southern women. Southern culture held a behavioral code where men's honor depended on the domination of others and the protection of southern White womanhood. This culture was deeply intertwined with the institution of slavery, shaping social life and decreasing class tensions among White southerners on the basis of race, despite wealth inequalities. Slavery also fostered a racial ideology and defined the United States as a White man's republic, influencing women's roles and rights.
Antebellum reforms, such as abolition and temperance movements, empowered some women through the roles of nurturers and moral guardians, subsequently becoming a springboard for their action against gender inequality. However, these roles were still largely confined within traditional gender prescriptions. Education also played a part, as some northern female reformers, advocating for Republican Motherhood, saw new roles for women as educators of children, leveraging their perceived moral and nurturing nature.
The economic and political power in the South was predominantly controlled by wealthy planters who defined ideals of southern White manhood and womanhood. Women often had very limited rights regarding property ownership and legal authority until the 1840s when states began passing property laws. Moreover, women's experiences were defined by patriarchal structures, where wealthy planters in the South were patriarchs and sovereigns of their own households, and women conformed to domestic and subservient roles.