Women in the Victorian era

The status of Women in the Victorian Era is often seen as an illustration of the striking discrepancy between England's national power and wealth and what many, then and now, consider its appalling social conditions. Women were seen as pure and clean. Because of this view, their bodies were seen as temples which should not be adorned with jewelery nor used for physical exertion or pleasurable sex. The role of women was to have children and tend to the house, in contrast to men, according to the concept of Victorian masculinity. They could not hold a job unless it was that of a teacher or a domestic servant, nor were they allowed to have their own checking accounts or savings accounts.

Women as Generals of Households.

The first mention of a woman being described as the general of a household was in 1876 by Isabella Beeton in her manual "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management". Here she explained that the mistress of a household is comparable to the Commander of an Army or the leader of an enterprise. In order to run a respectable household and secure the happiness, comfort and well-being of her family she must perform her duties intelligently and thoroughly. For example, she has to organize, delegate and instruct her servants which is not an easy task as many of them are not reliable. Another duty described by Beeton is that of being the "sick-nurse" who takes care of ill family members. This requires a good temper, compassion for suffering and sympathy with sufferers, neat-handedness, quiet manners, love of order and cleanliness; all qualities a woman worthy of the name should possess in the 19th century. A very special connection existed between women and their brothers. Sisters had to treat their brothers as they would treat their future husbands. They were dependent on their male family members as the brother's affection might secure their future in case their husband treated them badly or they did not get married at all.Also, while it was very easy to lose one's reputation, it was difficult to establish a reputation. For example, if one person in a family did something horrible, the whole family would have to suffer the consequences.Women as generals of households were very common. Women always were basically the generals of a strict and proper household.

Women and sex

Victorian society preferred to avoid talking about sex. Although this is difficult to do, sexual activities were highly regulated in Europe by church and state law. Sexuality, viewed by the doctrines of medieval church, was considered as a gift from God; they followed the teachings of St. Paul and encouraged a life of chastity over a life of sexual desire. Church law also ruled out sexual activities between the same genders and placed sexual limitations on married couples. Sexual relations were solely for the purpose of reproduction; therefore the church opposed sexual relations for the intentions of solely obtaining pleasure. For this, certain positions were outlawed, for example, standing up (it was believed that semen would flow out) and the placement of women on top (it contradicted the idea that men were dominant and it reversed the role of women). As for adultery, courts treated women and men differently. They typically granted more severe consequences to female adulterers than to males. Courts argued that it was not right that a woman's child from a father not her husband should inherit her husband's property; thus their laws set standards for the sexual behavior of women higher than those of men.

Women as educational inequals

Subjects such as history, geography and general literature were of importance, whereas Latin and Greek were of little importance. They were allowed to be teachers and the only role they could have was to be a housewife other jobs were for men and not women. Also, they were allowed to be workers in another household, such as a maid or cook.

Attempts

Reforming Divorce Laws

Great changes in the situation of women took place in the 19th century, especially concerning marriage laws and the legal status of women. The situation that fathers always received custody of their children, leaving the mother completely without any rights, slowly started to change. The "Custody of Infants Act" in 1839 gave mothers of unblemished character access to their children in the event of separation or divorce, and the "Matrimonial Causes Act" in 1857 gave women limited access to divorce. But while the husband only had to prove his wife's adultery, a woman had to prove her husband had not only committed adultery but also incest, bigamy, cruelty or desertion. In 1873 the "Custody of Infants Act" extended access to children to all women in the event of separation or divorce. In 1878, after an amendment to the "Matrimonial Causes Act", women could secure a separation on the grounds of cruelty and claim custody of their children. Magistrates even authorized protection orders to wives whose husbands have been convicted of aggravated assault. An important change was caused by an amendment to the "Married Women's Property Act" in 1884 that made a woman no longer a 'chattel' but an independent and separate person. Through the "Guardianship of Infants Act" in 1886 women could be made the sole guardian of their children if their husband died.

Reform of Prostitution Laws

The situation of prostitutes -- and as was later demonstrated women in general -- was actually worsened through the 'First Contagious Diseases Prevention Act' in 1864. In towns with a large military population, women suspected of being prostitutes had to subject themselves to an involuntary periodic genital examination. If they were diagnosed with an illness they were confined to hospitals until they were cured. This law applied to women only since military doctors believed that these shameful examinations would destroy a man's self-respect, another indication of the double standard of Victorian society. Because the decision about who was a prostitute was left to the judgement of police officers, far more women than those who were really prostitutes were examined. After two extensions of the law in 1866 and 1869 the unjust acts were finally repealed in 1886. A in this matter was Josephine Butler who helped to form a society who worked to repeal these acts.

Further reading

*Hellerstein, Erna Olafson, Leslie Parker Hume, and Karen M. Offen. "Victorian Women: A Documentary Account of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France, and the United States". Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1981. ISBN 0804710880.
* Rappaport, Erika. "Shopping for pleasure. Women in the making of London's West End." Princeton, New Jersey:University of Nevada

External links

* [http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eletrs/vwwp/ The Victorian Women Writers Project]