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Ahmed Jamil Jalal

4th Year – Group A

27/12/2022

3rd Update

Women According to the Victorian Mindset

1. Ideal Women

In early 19th century England, women faced many difficulties to obtain social, economic,

and educational rights that are equal to men. The positions of women were determined by men

and their opinions. They were used to control women: one was used to make an example all

women should follow, and the other one was used to show women what they would become if

they did not follow the example. The ideal woman is the concept created by men to control

women. The ideal woman was an example of perfect womanhood – she is described as chaste

and virtuous. This is a sort of woman young girls were encouraged to be like. This concept of a

woman derived from the belief that women are inferior to men, they were viewed as only

supposed to be housewives and mothers to their children. (Rad)

The status of women has always been fragile, not because women are naturally weak and

defenseless, but because of the social norms attached to the status of women. During the

Victorian era, women were believed to be in control of their privates and reproductive organs,

which prevented them from being treated equally. According to men, they are biologically

inferior and should therefore be carefully examined and monitored (Wojtczak).

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Women's weakness drives men to control her and every aspect of their lives. A set of

social rules was created for women to follow the rules. These rules were presented as a guide for

girls to become the perfect Victorian woman. The term "ideal woman" sounds nice, but it's

actually quite limiting. Women are taken away and become man's property, instruments of his

success, enjoyment and abuse. (Rad)

In the Victorian era, the true female ideal was a virtuous and chaste woman whose only

goal was to be a quiet submissive wife. Coventry's Patmore (1586) called her "the angel of the

house," who had to obey her husband, take care of the home, and bring up the children without

complaint. Marriage and childbearing were seen as the two most important aspects of a Victorian

woman's life: "For a woman not to be a mother, it is easy to label her as unskilled, a failure, or

something unusual. Married women are supposed to be mothers." (Abram)

Women during this era were only viewed as people that should only concern themselves

with keeping a successful mother and housewife and there was a widely accepted conservative

ideology of social roles and activities for women. According to this ideology, men were

supposed to operate in professions, governmental services, the world of business or industry to

acquire property, advance themselves, and improve the condition of their families. On the other

hand, women were expected to deal with domestic affairs and serve as a moral guide. (Gökçek)

Yet even apparently female domains such as housework and motherhood are denied

honor and respect. Women raise children, but men are the ones who make all the important

decisions that concern them. Also, looking after the house is a good enough job for women, but it

is considered shameful for men. But women could not do men's jobs because they were

considered intellectually unsuitable for this job. This system ensures the status of women as

second class citizens without any rights. (Rad)

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It was believed that women were protected against worldly evils and possessed a moral

influence that can correct men’s missteps. Victorian society believed that a woman’s only

contribution to the masculine world is emotional and moral guidance which constitutes a

woman’s responsibility as a wife or mother. (Gökçek)

Women are brought up with ideas of purity, piety, modesty and submission; this behavior

affects them from the very first stages of life (Wojtczak).

In early 19th century England, women were not allowed to improve their conditions

through education, occupation, and emotional experience. They had to deny emotional

fulfillment and desire to have roles in relation to men in society. Especially in the early 19th

century, a girl had little chance to cultivate her accomplishments because she was allowed to do

only certain restricted accomplishments which do not necessitate professionalism. For instance,

they were allowed to play piano, draw, and write, but they were not allowed to take them too

seriously. Nineteenth-century society believed that advanced education would spoil women’s

innocence and nurturing instincts. (Gökçek)

The plays Helen Fleetwood, Goblin Market, North and South, Shirley and Sybil all show

women characteristic in various acting roles during this period. All of these texts attempt to show

that working women of all classes and job roles are viewed and treated badly by Victorian

society as a whole. However, society does not offer women any other option to improve or better

the situation they are in. These texts show the insecure conditions these working women faced

and the treatment meted out to them by society at large. (Barrett)

The ideology of sharing the private sphere to women and the public sphere of business,

commerce and politics to men was common. Literature and domestic fiction, as well as magazine
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and newspaper advertising columns, declared family life to be the sphere of women. For many in

the professional and business classes, the increasing physical separation of home and workplace

meant that these women were separated from production and began to construct their identities

within the borders of the home. Due to their responsibilities in the family, women are charged

with moral responsibility both towards the family, especially towards the husband, and towards

the society in general. (Abrams)

Women were seen as the moral guidance of home and symbol of sexual purity since they

were expected to refrain from even mentioning of sexuality. An ideal woman is expected to give

up her wishes and feelings for the men she loves and be ignorant and sacrifice herself for her

family. The woman at home who blossoms exclusively as wife and mother was the only ideal.

(Gökçek)

Therefore, intelligent women were not wanted in the society. Because of this reason,

intellectual and creative women had to hide their abilities from the public. Despite prejudices and

difficulties, the profession of letters was opened widely to women from the 1840s. However, the

women interested in writing such as George Eliot and the Bronte sisters had to use pseudonyms.

Even those who did not use pseudonyms such as Jane Austen had to write their novels secretly.

Once Charlotte Bronte complained about the burden of being a woman writer and expressed her

wish to be judged as a writer rather than as a woman with these words: I wish you did not think

me a woman. I wish all reviewers believed: “Currer Bell” to be a man — they would be more

just to him. You will—I know—keep measuring me by some standards of what you deem

becoming to my sex—where I am not what you consider graceful, you will condemn me . . .

(quoted in Hoeveler 42) (Gökçek)

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Since society does not approve of intellectual women, parents used to believe that

education is not necessary for girls in early 19th century England. At that time girls could only

attend institutions that claim to prepare them for marriage. In these institutions, they were taught

the rudiments of French, reading, writing, and arithmetic. (Gökçek)

Many publications tell women how to be good wives and home leaders. Mrs Beaton's

book on household management was first published in 1861 and has been a bestseller for over 50

years. It contains tips on how to become the perfect housewife and how to create a home interior

that will provide a comfortable shelter for the pond. In 1890, The Christian Miscellany and

Family Visitor (a religious magazine) wrote in its "Hints for Family Life" column: 'She [the

housewife] is the architect of home, and it depends on her skill, her foresight, her soft arranging

touches whether it shall be the "lodestar to all hearts", or whether it shall be a house from which

husband and children are glad to escape either to the street, the theatre, or the tavern.' (Abrams)

The education they received provided them with the role of a good wife and mother. Men

study everything from literature and history to mathematics and philosophy, while women study

dance, painting, music and, of course, anything related to housework. (Rad)

It was after the middle of the 19th century when public schools for girls began to be built

with the help of the reformers who wanted these schools to function as equivalent to prestigious

public schools for boys and raise the status of women associated with these institutions as

teachers and graduates. The public schools for girls were the result of the dissatisfaction in the

middle class families with the educational opportunities for their daughters. At the beginning of

the century, families of gentle status educated their daughters either by hiring governesses or by

sending them to private schools operated by gentlewomen in need of money. (Gökçek)

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Once educated, men are free to pursue their careers, but women are free to stay at home:

“Tom, Dick, and Harry, aforesaid, leave school and plunge into life; ‘the girls’ likewise finish

their education, come home, and stay at home” (Mulock 1596).

Studying other fields is often unnecessary and pointless because it is difficult for women

to find work. It is also inconvenient because they have to stay at home and satisfy their husbands

who are supposed to be the workers. Boys are raised to be workers and girls are raised to be

polite so they can find a good man. Men are not the only ones who control women - mothers of

girls raised in the same environment force the same exact rules on girls. Getting rid of this

system is almost impossible, because it is enforced not only by the oppressors, but also by the

oppressed. Women accept this condition and continue to follow it. (Rad)

The idea that a woman's body is a man's object is so strong that a young girl grows up

believing that her body is her husband's. She must maintain a standard of purity that will never

apply to her future husband. A good wife is a virgin until the wedding night and remains faithful

to her husband forever. Her husband, on the other hand, is allowed to have premarital sex, and

his disloyalty is often ignored. His body and sexuality were never to be scrutinized by the public,

but since a woman was considered pure and asexual by nature, the existence of sexual desire in

her was considered abnormal. (Rad)

Unfortunately, Victorian marriage was rarely an institution where both parties enjoyed

equal respect and rights. Women never really owned themselves, nor did they have autonomy

over their lives and bodies. Although motherhood is considered sacred, mothers rarely have any

real power to make decisions for their children. The head of the family is the father, and women

before marriage are considered the property of the father (Wojtczak).

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After marriage, ownership passes from the father to the husband. They become the

property of their husbands along with everything else they own. According to the law, all their

profits, property and even their bodies belonged to their husbands, and they could use the

property as they saw fit. (Rad)

Profits from any land that belonged to the wife at the time of the marriage or inherited

during the marriage also become the property of the husband (...) Moreover, in marriage, men

acquire more than ownership of the wife's income and property: the law determines them in the

bodies of Their wives - and thus giving them the right to everything these bodies produce,

including housework, sex, and children. (Bradbury 137)

In addition, men used to believe that it was their duty to protect women from sexuality. A

husband was responsible for the wife’s actions; he controlled her property. An unmarried woman

was traditionally dependent on her father and brother. (Gökçek)

At the beginning of the 19th century, divorced women did not have the right to receive

property and maintenance, and married women did not have the right to receive children. An

unhappily married woman cannot do much about her situation. Since everything she owns

belongs to her husband, he can do whatever he wants with her property, children and body. Her

condition is almost that of a slave. Even in cases of abuse or disloyalty, she is unlikely to divorce

or leave her husband (Rad)

A woman could only be divorced in rare cases, and until 1891, if she ran away from an

intolerable marriage, the police could capture her and return her, while her husband could

imprison her. All this is sanctioned by the church, laws, customs, history and society are

generally accepted. (Wojczak)

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The Married Women's Property Act of 1870 resulted from the efforts of a group of

feminists in Manchester. While the bill does not give women the same rights as men, it at least

gives all wives the right to share property, including income, investments and some marital

inheritances. Women also have rights to property before and during marriage under the Women's

Property Act of 1882. Before these laws in the early 19th century, all the wife's property was

considered the property of the husband. Women, whether married or not, are legally and socially

vulnerable. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, women's legal status was still based on

patriarchal Roman law, which gave legal existence only to the head of the family, and women

had no right to political office except that of queen. (Gökçek)

2. Fallen Women

Several words come to mind when we consider women in Victorian Era. The phrase "The

New Woman" is possibly the most well-known in today's society. Anything even vaguely related

to women's suffrage and freedom. The Fallen Woman is another phrase that is a bit ambiguous

because it covers a number of conditions where women can find themselves in it. (KÜHL)

Where did the need to label, classify and stereotype women come from? 19th century? Of

course, this is not an entirely new phenomenon. You could say the first two the stereotype of

women in Western Christian culture is Mary and Eve. Our Lady of Purity kind, willing to

sacrifice and be God's instrument against temptations, she herself was seduced by the devil,

disobeyed the rules given to her. This leads not only to her own downfall, but also to the fall of

man by being thrown out of paradise. (KÜHL)

Fallen Women was the title women tried hard to avoid. The fallen woman describes a

complete opposite to the ideal woman – a woman who defies the rules of men and God. The state
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of a fallen woman usually refers to her immoral sexual behavior, but it was used for any woman

that broke the rules of society. The stories of fallen women were used to warn young girls and

keep them in line. (Rad)

In the Victorian era, female sexuality was perhaps the single biggest aspect of a woman's

life that men wanted to control. A woman's body was considered dirty unless under the strict

supervision of a man. Although the term "depraved woman" was originally used to describe

women who lost their virginity through socially prohibited sexual practices such as premarital

sex, extramarital sex, or prostitution, it can also refer to lower-class women, women who have

been raped, or who has a bad reputation. In some cases, women are considered immoral simply

because they are educated or eccentric. (Rad)

Women who were unable to live up to such high expectations would be considered less

worthy and were to be pitied. Any woman who desired something more than being a wife and a

mother was often treated as an outcast, and considered strange, even immoral Women who

refused to be controlled by the rules set by men were immediately labeled as sinful. They were

usually treated very badly by the society, even by their own families. It is not surprising that after

a while, a new term arose to describe the ones who have, according to society, failed – the

infamous fallen women. (Rad)

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Work Cited

Gökçek, Aycan. “Social Position of Victorian Women: Villette and Emma” Comparative

Literature: East & West, vol. 4, issue. 2, 01 Feb 2021, pp 143-155. Tandfonline.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25723618.2021.1876970?

scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab

ZAVRŠNI RAD. “Fragility of the Victorian Concept of Ideal Woman: A Case Study of Tess of

the D'Ubervilles.” repozitorij.ffos.hr, 2014-09-15, https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:142:742348

Barrett, Kara L., "Victorian Women and Their Working Roles."

digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu, 5-2013,

https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/english_theses/9/

Abrams, Lynn. “Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain.” bbc.co.uk,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_womanhood_01.shtml

Wojtczak, Helena. “British Women's Emancipation since the Renaissance.” hastingspress.co.uk,

2009, http://hastingspress.co.uk/historyofwomen/index.html

Kuhl, Sarah. “The Angel in the House and Fallen Women: Assigning Women their Places in

Victorian Society.” open.conted.ox.ac.uk, July 11, 2016,

https://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/resources/documents/angel-house-and-fallen-women-assigning-

women-their-places-victorian-society