The Victorian era saw the roles of men and women sharply demarcated than any other time in history. Former centuries had women working alongside their male counterparts and in the family business, but as the years went by, they were left at home to manage the home duties carried out by the servants or do the work on their own. The duty cast upon the Victorian woman was that of keeping her husband happy and efficiently managing her household. Regardless of the class to which one belonged, women in this era were subjected to Victorian masculinity and were regularly discriminated against by their gender. The Victorian society, women were not given the same rights as men, and they were left to accept the roles decided for them by the society. This paper discusses the role of women in Victorian England and some of the abuses that female gender encountered.
The accepted reasoning for the place of women was for them to aspire towards marriage and to achieve this; young girls were groomed from birth by the older women on what was expected of them. Education was reserved for the upper and middle class, and even here, the lessons were limited to fashionable accomplishments such as singing, dancing, painting, drawing, and knowledge of the French or Italian languages. The academic focus was left to the boy child, and it was not until the 20th century that women were able to gain full acceptance in universities. The qualities that made a young lady desirable in this era included; innocence, virtue, they were to be biddable, dutiful and possess ignorance regarding any intellectual judgement.
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Whether they were in a marriage or not, women were seen to be weak and helpless, acting like children incapable of making decisions that went above selection of food from a menu or carrying for her home and children. She was expected to keep her husband happy and have the home bring comfort away from the stresses they encountered all day (Wynne, 2016). The man was only tasked with bringing money, and he was not to be bothered with the running of the household. Charles Dickens in his book Hard Times offered traits such as compassion, purity and emotional sensitivity to be possessed by women (Dickens, 1854). When Stephen feels repressed in his job as a factory worker, it is Rachel who offers him comfort and motivation to keep going. Sissy who is adopted into the Gradgrind home brings love and shows Louisa that she should follow her heart and not suffer through life (Dickens, 1854).
Women in Britain were regarded as second class citizens even as the head of state was a woman, Queen Victoria (1837-1901). Women were not allowed to vote, and a majority of the men did not like the idea of women being associated with politics. It was the general opinion that women were better placed sitting by the hearth with their needles, entertaining guests, or being involved in education matters of their children. The Victorian woman was not allowed to sue, own property or even obtain a divorce unless they could offer proof of infidelity, cruelty, and dissertation. Since women were regarded as part of their husband's property, they could seldom have a say in most matter especially those that related to their well-being (Wynne, 2016).
In conclusion, calls for reform had many of the female intellectual thinkers stating their case, and they fought for the recognition of women and independent and separate individuals who should be accorded the same right as men. They struggled to have better education, practical dressing, and the right to seek gainful employment, and so forth. Many of the women who championed these changed did not live to see the fruits of their labor. Women like Lucretia Mott and Cady Stanton were responsible for shaking society into recognizing the potential it had when they made actual use of the women rather than shunning them and viewing them as property.
References
Dickens, C. (1854). Hard Times . Wordsworth Printing Press.
Wynne, D. (2016). Women and Personal Property in the Victorian Novel . Routledge.
