Becerra 1

Maria Alejandra Becerra

Teacher Laura White

British Literature

13 November 2015

Women’s Role During The Victorian Era

The Victorian Era was one of the most famous eras in English History. It was a

time of change. Many of the historical changes that characterized this period motivated

discussion and argument about the nature and role of women — what the Victorians

called "The Woman Question." Also, during this time there were two movements in which

women participated. One of them was the Temperance movement, which was an

organized effort to encourage moderation in the consumption of intoxicating liquors or

press for complete abstinence. The movement's ranks were mostly filled by women who,

with their children, had endured the effects of uncontrolled drinking by many of their

husbands. The other movement was Feminism1. The women's rights movement was one

of the most important events in the Victorian Era. During the reign of Queen Victoria, a

woman's place was in the home, as domesticity and motherhood were considered by

society at large to be enough emotional fulfillment for females. Why were some women

supportive of their roles in society during the Victorian Era while others weren’t?

The Victorian Era was characterized as a domestic age. Queen Victoria came to

represent a kind of femininity that was centered on the family, motherhood and

respectability. Even though these ideals kept women away from the public life, during the

1 Feminism: the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to
those of men
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19th century charitable missions began to extend the female role of service, and Victorian

feminism emerged as a potent political force. The Industrial Revolution2 in Britain had

profound consequences in the ways women were idealized. New kinds of work and new

kinds of urban living prompted a change in the ways in which appropriate male and female

roles were perceived. The ideas that women and men lived in different “spheres”, women

in the private sphere of domesticity and men in the public sphere of business and politics,

influenced women’s choices and experiences. Texts in the topic of “The Woman

Question” address both the hardships faced by women forced into new kinds of labor and

the competing visions of those who exalted domestic life and those who supported

women's efforts to move beyond the home3.

The Feminist Movement during the Victorian Era is considered as a movement that

would give women their equal rights with men back at that time. A very common image

that people have of the Victorian woman is home loving, devoted to family, and unselfish.

However, for a countless number of families, the above scenario was not the case as

many wives and unmarried daughters also had to go out to work daily in order to provide

for their families. These are the women of the working class and those who lived in poverty

who are very often overlooked when talking about the Victorian Era. The division between

the “domestic female” and the “public” male was not the reality for many and practicing it,

was considered burdensome. The women who would go on to fight for their rights

believed that manipulating its principles would prove more successful than a total

2 The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from
about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. The Industrial Revolution began in the United
Kingdom and most of the important technological innovations were British.
3
Examples of these texts are “Of Queen's Gardens” by John Ruskin in which he celebrates the
"true wife," and Elizabeth Eastlake's "Lady Travellers" proposes her as a national ideal, while in
The Girl of the Period Eliza Lynn Linton satirizes the modern woman.
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rejection of the ideology. Women argued that if their purity allowed them to be the

teachers of moral values, then their effect on public life could only be uplifting. This

argument became the leading edge for the women's rights movement during the period.

Women's demands for participation in public life presented the challenge of separating

the "sphere ideology".

While many women were supportive of women’s changing roles, they did not agree

unanimously. For example, during the Victorian Era women participated in the

Temperance movement. The Temperance movement focused on the drinking habits of

men, because men drank openly and because the drinking habits of women were

unknown. While its goals changed according to its respective leaders, it achieved what it

originally set out to do: control drunkenness and change Victorian England's lenient

treatment of alcohol abusers. Women participated in this movement because their

families had had to endure the consequences of excessive drinking of their husbands.

One critic, Richard D. Altick states, “a woman was inferior to a man in all ways except the

unique one that counted most [to a man]: her femininity. Her place was in the home, on

a veritable pedestal if one could be afforded, and emphatically not in the world of affairs”

(Altick 54). Women spent all their lives preparing for marriage and having no freedom

because of the expectations men had. These expectations pressured women to be the

ideal Victorian woman society expected them to be. The women had to prepare

themselves for what was to come of their lives and it determined their future. If a woman

did not meet the expectations of the Victorian male, she would end up spouseless. The

fear of ending up without a husband could be one of the reasons why some women

accepted their role in Victorian society.

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The Victorian Era affected future societies because it established a cultural norm.

Women were expected to participate in jobs that dealt with taking care of the children and

taking care of the husband’s needs. Men were expected to find jobs outside of the home

and become successful enough to bring it home and support the family. Many women still

follow this expectation, in fear of being judged or criticized for behaving against it.

Education in particular was not as stressed upon women because of their conservative

role that kept them mostly at home. Very few women received an education, as it was

expensive and contradictory to the cultural norm. Today’s society is even more of a

challenge to the conservative view, because more women are becoming involved in

education and making greater achievements in the fields of literature, mathematics,

science, and many others. The number of women enrolled in college now exceeds men.

“Women obtained 19% of all undergraduate college degrees by the 20th Century. By

1984 the figure had sharply increased to 49%. Graduate study numbers increased as

well” (Women’s History). These statistics show that women are making names for

themselves in the professional workplace.

The 19th century saw significant developments in and the widespread questioning

of the place of women in English society. While many women would increasingly demand

more political and legal rights and greater economic and social opportunities, the Victorian

Era also saw the increasing identification of women with the domestic sphere. The women

that were part of the Feminist movement argued that they deserved a place in the public

sphere. On the other hand, some women decided to fulfill their domestic roles because it

was easier during that time. Nowadays, women prove to be more active and ambitious

than they once were in the more innocent Victorian Era. It’s important to acknowledge
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that women have come a long way and that perhaps they will continue to progress,

making the gender gap between male and female smaller and smaller.
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Works Cited

Abrams, Lynn. "Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain." BBC News. BBC, 9 Aug.

2001. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_womanh

ood_02.shtml>.

Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia. “Women’s History in America Presented by

Women’s International Center.” 1995. Web.

Malheiro, B. "The Victorian Woman - 1876 Victorian England Revisited." The Victorian

Woman - 1876 Victorian England Revisited. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

<http://logicmgmt.com/1876/overview/victorian_woman/victorian_woman.htm>.

Weston, Paulina. "A Woman's Place In C19th Victorian History." A Woman's Place in

Victorian Society. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. <http://www.fashion-

era.com/a_womans_place.htm>.