Victorian women

The Victorian woman in general

From our liberated point of view it is not easy to undestand the women’s role in the Victorian era. The women were looked upon as family claim and as second class persons. Their only job was to have children and take care for the house. Only the job of a teacher was acceptable and the women from lower classes were able to work in textile factories. The home should be a place of comford for the husband so that he had not to worry about family affairs and apply wholeheartedly to his job.

 

Etiquette

The only way to climb the social ledder was to marry a rich and smart man. To reach this there were certain qualities a woman should bring along was to sing, play an instrument and speak a little French or Italian and of course she had to archieve features like being innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and ignorent of intellectual opinion. A Victorian  woman had to be weak and helpless to submit to the man.  She should spent the time reading, sewing, receiving guests, visit other women, writing letters or seeing to the servants so that there were not that much things to do.

 

Dresses

The dressses mirrored the family wealth. Popular were V-waists, layering of trims, bell sleeves and engageantes. There were also etiquette rules connected with the clothes. The wardrobe had to be changed a few times a day because there were dresses for several occasíons: morning and mourning dress, walking dress, town dress, visiting dress, receiving visitors dress, travelling dress, shooting dress, golf dress, seaside dress, races dress, concert dress, opera dress, dinner and ball dress.

 

Politics

Consistent with the social situation the women were not allowed to vote until 1918. Furthermore, there were no female politicians apart from Queen Victoria. A change was the Married Woman’s Property Act in 1887. Before the women were not allowed to own her own property after her husband’s death. Technical innovations like the railway, typewriter, post, camera, motor car, gas, water and electricity in house were new challanges to cope with so that the women gained new self-confidence. New and dynamic groups were formed to demand reforms like the voting rights for women.

 

Source and additional information