The Victorian era in England, 1837-1901, is often characterized by a focus and idealization on domesticity. Throughout most of recorded European history, women have been considered inferior to men, and during the time of Queen Victoria, this preconception was further immortalized by the aristocracy. During this time, women of all social classes held a variety of roles. Though they could be said to have led very different lives, women of all social standings were commonly taught from an early age that they were less important than men. Though all women of the Victorian era were typically raised as young girls to believe they must marry or be considered failures, the single women of the middle-class began making changes to this belief. Though …show more content…
There were also many circumstances where an unmarried middle-class woman needed money to support herself or relatives. Some had to contribute economically to the family as soon as they were able to. With this, young women could find themselves having to battle for sufficient work and reasonable pay to meet this need. Furthermore, there were also middle-class women who did not have any form of income in the event of their parent’s death if they did not find an adequate job. For this, they would require marketable skills. They were warned against acquiring these skills and working for pay no matter their personal circumstances. They were told to stay home and play the role of the typical spinster. The ideal of single middle-class women remaining in the home and the reality of the numerous reasons they had to perform paid work was the primary weapon used by those pushing for reform to improve the status and opportunities of single women. Even armed with this weapon, it was not easy work to bring about these changes. Bringing this reform was difficult and slow because “women and their families assumed they would marry until it was too late to seek skilled training; it was widely believed that any marriage was better than being an old maid; and women themselves were isolated from each other and almost wholly lacking in positive role models”, so many women were past the time in which training would normally happen. Another factor in this reform was the British economy’s need for trained women. It could be said that things only really began to change due to the frustration of certain smart, well-to-do women who stepped up to become leaders. Not only the need for money, but the desire for education played a significant role in the emergence of feminism in Victorian
In an essay written for The Edinburgh Review Harriet Martineau argued that because there were not enough husbands to go around, girls should be educated and trained to be self-supporting (Showalter ix). By the end of the century, the numbers of unmarried women lacking economic support reached crisis proportions. This event, as much or more than any other, precipitated the feminist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which eventually brought suffrage to British and American women, and created limited job opportunities for women in the business world.... ... middle of paper ...
The mid-nineteenth century also referred to as the “Victorian Age, taking from the name of England's Queen Victoria who ruled for over 60 years” (Radek) revealed that women were faced with many adversities that appeared to have delayed their true aptitudes. During this time period, women were also required to conform to the divine command of men and must find a husband or she would be derided by the social order. In the same way, women were also not allowed to follow a profession.
The Victorian era was a period of time in England spanning from 1837 to 1901, named after Queen Victoria who reigned in this time period. Women were a suppressed gender in the Victorian era. Unmarried women that were 21 years old or older had the right to own their own property and earn their own money; however as soon as they got married they lost all of their rights. Their husband was now entitled to all wealth and property. Most people accepted the suppression however certain people started fighting for women’s rights. One of the protestors was Barbara Bodichon who wrote the pamphlet “Laws Concerning Women”, which is about the laws that women were obligated to follow.
19th-Century Women Works Cited Missing Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail, as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so. One of the most common expectations for women is that they are responsible for doing the chore of cleaning, whether it is cleaning the house, doing the laundry.
Two hundred years ago, during the reign of Queen Victoria in England, the social barriers of the Victorian class system firmly defined the roles of women. The families of Victorian England were divided into four distinct classes: the Nobility or Gentry Class, the Middle Class, the Upper Working Class, and lastly, the Lower Working class . The women of these classes each had their own traditional responsibilities. The specifics of each woman’s role were varied by the status of her family. Women were expected to adhere to the appropriate conventions according to their place in the social order . For women in Victorian England their lives were regulated by these rules and regulations, which stressed obedience, loyalty, and respect.
During the 1800s, society believed there to be a defined difference in character among men and women. Women were viewed simply as passive wives and mothers, while men were viewed as individuals with many different roles and opportunities. For women, education was not expected past a certain point, and those who pushed the limits were looked down on for their ambition. Marriage was an absolute necessity, and a career that surpassed any duties as housewife was practically unheard of. Jane Austen, a female author of the time, lived and wrote within this particular period. Many of her novels centered around women, such as Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, who were able to live independent lives while bravely defying the rules of society. The roles expected of women in the nineteenth century can be portrayed clearly by Jane Austen's female characters of Pride and Prejudice.
The Victorian era, spurred a momentary sequence of both women and men in search of a prosperous relationship regulated by the demanding etiquettes of the Victorian Society. If these desired qualities were not in possession, a man or woman could be labeled as ‘unsuitable’ in the positions of a husband or a wife. Women suffered mostly throughout the Victorian Era as rights were ceased and the rules and guidelines of society were placed. The Victorian Era caused the rights of women to escalate when the Vision of the “Ideal Woman” was introduced amongst society; producing segregation between men and women to last for years to come.
Women were expected to set the example for their children, satisfy the needs of their husbands, and it was unheard of for women to express their sexual desires. During this time women were placed into two categories, they were either virgins or married, any woman who did not fit into either of these categories was considered a whore and this meant she was essentially useless. “If a woman went into a hansom alone with a man who was neither her father, nor her husband […] her reputation was irretrievably lost” (Swisher, 181). This shows that even though people did not know the whole story, they judged others by the appearance of things. Most of the Victorian culture was centered on these things that women were expected to do or not to be seen doing. Scientists believed that men were the active ones who were supposed to use all of their energy, while women were sedentary and were supposed to conserve energy. “According to Wollsto...
The Victorian era established strict guidelines and definitions for the ladies and gentleman. Noble birth typically defined one as a "lady" or a "gentleman," but for women in this time period, socioeconomic rank and titles held no prestige or special privileges in a male-dominated society. Commonly, women in this era generally tried to gain more influence and respect but to no avail as their male counterparts controlled the ideals and practices of society. Women were subject to these ideals and practices without any legal or social rights or privileges. In the literary titles by Frances Power Cobbe, Sarah Stickney Ellis, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Sir Henry Newbolt, and Caroline Norton, the positions, opinions, and lifestyles of men and women during the Victorian era were clearly defined. Men in the Victorian era were raised to be intellectually and physically sound in order to be skillful in the workplace and the military while women were typically restricted to fulfilling roles within the home. As the female desire for equal rights and representation under the law mounted, an international vigor for female equality would produce a call for equality.
The Victorian era was an extremely difficult time for women in Great Britain. They were subject to gross inequalities such as, not being able to; control their own earnings, education, and marriage. As well as having a lack of equality within marriage, women had poor working conditions, and an immense unemployment rate as well. Not only was the fact that women were viewed as second-class citizens and had limited rights compared to men during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a major problem, but women were also held to a much different standard, and expected to carry out many
Throughout history, women of all classes have often been subordinate to men, adopting positions of companionship and support rather than taking leadership roles. In the 19th century England, a patriarchal society, presumed that “females were naïve, fragile, and emotionally weak creatures who could not exist independently of a husband or a father’s wise guidance.” It was until the Industrial Revolution that lower class women were able to find jobs in factories and become more independent from their households and husbands. Even then, their jobs were harsh and they were often underpaid compared to their male counterparts. Emma Paterson, the leader of the Women’s Trade Union once said, “Not only are women frequently paid half or less than half for doing work as well and as quickly as men, but skilled women whose labour requires delicacy of touch, the result of long training as well as thoughtfulness receive from 11 shillings to 16 or 17 shilling a week, while the roughest unskilled labour of a man is worth at least 18 shillings.” The employers of Industrial Revolution mistreated and abused lower class women to such an extent that middle class women were beginning to become aware of their suffering. Girls were sent to factories at very early ages and many lacked proper education. These events led to middle class women fight for laws protecting women employees and women suffrages. Middle class women led strikes and revolts against employers as they struggled to bring fairness between men and women. These feminists were the first women that fought for women’s rights and were responsible for equality that men and women have today.
The Victorian Era started when Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837 and ended roughly the day she died in 1901. Victorian England “was a strictly patriarchal society” (Yildirim 2). It is common knowledge that during the Victorian era men and women had their own specific roles. It is also common knowledge to know that men had complete legal and economical control over the women (Mitchell 1, 142). Women were expected to stay at home to keep house and take care of the children.
Trolls The film Trolls by directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dorn has brought a lot of attention in such a short amount of time. While animation is not usually seen a genre full of inspiration or motivation, this production has very important messages to convey to the children of this generation. From the visuals and appearances of the characters, to the final message portrayed in the movie, the movie Trolls is full of positive and inspirational points.
Women of the Victorian era were repressed, and had little if any social stature. They had a very few rights and fewer options open to them for self-support. For most women the only way to live decently was to get married, and in many cases it was not up to the women to choose whom she married. It was almost unheard of for a woman to marry out of her social class (Cain 20). If a woman did not marry, the only ways she could make a living other than becoming a servant was either to become a prostitute or a governess. For the most part, a woman was not given the opportunity to go to school and earn a degree unless she was born into a high social class. The average Victorian woman was treated not as a person, but as an object or piece of property. She had very few rights either in society, or marriage (Cain, 25). Bronte, born into a middle class family, refused to be repressed by society. She recognized the injustices of her society, and in rebellion against society’s ideologies involving women, wrote Jane Eyre.
Throughout the early 1800s, British women most often were relegated to a subordinate role in society by their institutionalized obligations, laws, and the more powerfully entrenched males. In that time, a young woman’s role was close to a life of servitude and slavery. Women were often controlled by the men in their lives, whether it was a father, brother or the eventual husband. Marriage during this time was often a gamble; one could either be in it for the right reasons, such as love, or for the wrong reasons, such as advancing social status. In 19th century Britain, laws were enacted to further suppress women and reflected the societal belief that women were supposed to do two things: marry and have children.