In a situation where every individual of society was being held accountable for the nation’s future, the position of women was placed at the utmost importance. An advice book published in the 1840s (Agata by Josef Pečírka) described a woman’s role in life as marriage followed by childbearing and child rearing; a woman’s primary role was to be a wife and mother. Before women were seen to be able to have children, they firstly had to marry. Great emphasis was put on women to choose the right husband in order to ensure the nation’s future existence. Pečírka, in his book, explained that “a stranger is only the one whom a woman does not like”. Women had a responsibility to choose a husband based on their national ties. Those deemed as strangers
