Victorian Era Gender Roles Essay

During the Victorian period, gender roles became more sharply defined than at any time period. Prior to this period, it was normal for a women to work a alongside men. Women in the Greco-Roman period worked with their husbands or brothers in wool works, food shops or the grocery business. As the 19th century continued to flourish men started to escalate in their work at factories, shops and offices. Women were left at home to manage the housework. That was increasingly done by servants. The 19th century in a sense was the early stages of feminism, as women began to fight for their rights and attack the patriarchal society.

Men and women were considered to have opposite traits causing them to be selected for certain duties within the society. The ideology of “Separate Spheres” defined the “natural” character traits of men and women. Women were deemed to be physically weaker yet ethically superior to the male population, thus they were best in the domestic sphere. Women were to balance the work in which their husbands laboured all day so the women must prepare the new generation to carry on the way of life according to the sexes views. The main issue is that women had such a great influence at home, however it was used as an argument against giving them an equal right to vote.

Women in the 19th century had many reasons to be

What us natural to the two sexes can only be found out by allowing both to develop and use their faculties.” (Mill,1869). Mill wrote The Subjection of Women which is based on present law of force, not on the modern reason. Since no other opinion or views has been taught, the subjection of the “weaker female” compared to the “stronger Alpha male” rests upon unproven theory. Mill hoped to pave the way for a new system of equality based on theory, as no practice of gender equality had as yet been