Women: Prostitution During The Victorian Era

Women of The Victorian Era

The Victorian era, 1837-1901, is characterised as the domestic age par excellence, epitomised by Queen Victoria, who came to represent a kind of femininity which was centred on the family, motherhood and respectability. Accompanied by her beloved husband Albert and surrounded by her many children in the sumptuous but homely surroundings of Balmoral Castle, Victoria became an icon of late-19th-century middle-class femininity and domesticity.

Men were second to none during this era, women were almost always only fitted into the roles of housewives, treated as a secondary citizen to them. Working women were most likely forced to work due to circumstances in the household, and were very restricted within their classes,

Prostitution during the Victorian Era allowed women to barter within the market place without influence of men who would often take their earnings and goods. Women mill workers and prostitutes were viewed as issues to society and unhealthy individuals. In both situations women in these roles were incapable of being saved and were also unable to work in any position above mill work or prostitution. The view that higher society had of prostitutes showed that these women were labelled, and that redemption was not within reach for them. Both of these positions were viewed as poisoning to the women, making them unfit for a job that would maybe allow them to improve their situation. Prostitutes were often arrested (an average of 2,500) per year in order to keep the streets clean and free of these “fallen” and “wicked” women. Often times the police would find that these prostitutes were doing this line of work because their first job wasn’t providing enough

Costume history picture of ladies taking tea wearing full crinolines, to get ready for courtship and marriage a girl was groomed like a racehorse. In addition to being able to sing, play an instrument and speak a little French or Italian, the qualities a young Victorian gentlewoman needed, were to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion. Taking tea wearing lavish Victorian gowns in 1854. Fashion history images seen today are usually of beautifully gowned women, yet many working women as opposed to ladies such as these wore rags. The dresses show typical excessive style elements such as V waists, layering of trims, bell sleeves and engageantes. The ideal silhouette of the time demanded a narrow waist, which was accomplished by constricting the abdomen with a laced corset. While the silhouette was striking, and the dresses themselves were often exquisitely detailed creations, the fashions were cumbersome. At best, they restricted women's movements and at worst, they had a harmful effect on women's health. Physicians turned their attention to the use of corsets and determined that they caused several medical problems: compression of the thorax, restricted breathing, organ displacement, poor circulation, and prolapsed uterus. But these garments are what was expected of a woman to wear, regardless of the physical damage it may cost