Prostitution, unequal acknowledgment in college, unfair marriage rights; a life that sounds so restricting, was a life of a wo

Andrea Bromley

Mr. Meyers

Birth of Modern Europe

A Woman’s Chance

The woman of Victorian England, if lucky, found independence through prostitution, unequal acknowledgment in college, and struggled through fair marriage rights. While this life sounds utterly restricting, these were the potential opportunities for an independent, educated, and recognized woman of this age. Prostitution, while undesirable, was a practical option for women as a profession—a chance for them to live off their money, and lead their own lives in a world where work was reserved for men. Education, although unfair towards women, was a privilege that some middle class women could access. Marriage laws that used to take into account solely the male subject began to view the woman as a citizen but only within firm domestic boundaries. The woman’s tight role as the “angel in the house” began to expand and see the days of opportunity. The “Angel in the House” was the Victorian ideal of a woman’s essence and being, which required strict standards of the appropriate jobs and manners of the married woman. She was to ultimately be subservient to the husband; take care of the house (which belonged to him) and the children, cook, and act politely and gracefully. This role did not leave much room for individuality, independence, or empowerment, and made it very clear who women had to be. Yet, the emergence of liberalism, a theory founded on the principles of autonomy of the individual and the favoring of political liberties, in the 19^th century created an opportunity for women to test the bounds of their proscribed role. The Victorian Era was a time for women to feel through the smog of domesticity that threatened their path, and begin to create their own lives through law reforms, independence, and education.

Until the firm grasp over women’s behavior began to give breath to some, women were trapped in the rigid confines of the cult of domesticity. The cult of domesticity required women to maintain specific standards of conduct within their own homes, and indeed limited them to their homes. The ideal of womanhood endured four aspects of requirement; piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Piety was meant to keep busy their tired minds, and was intended as a job, where women were the delivers of good from God. This could all be done within the safe haven of the home. Purity was highly respected, for those who were not sexually pure were deemed useless, and destined to an awful life of hardships. Women were taught how to act around men in a fashion that would have nothing whatsoever to do with sex or sexual commentary. This went so far as to include changes in the woman’s language, referring to white meat instead of breast meat, and limbs instead of legs—a desperate attempt to keep the men and women’s minds off of having sex. Submissiveness was even more important—the woman was supposed to be aware of her inferiority, and look for superior qualities in her husband. She was to be fully dependent on the man for all of her needs, and attentive to all of his needs and desires. Domesticity was the most important of all; the woman had to create a safe home for the family, a place for the man to come home to after a day of work in the frightening world of greed. Taking care of the house was her fulltime job aimed to maintain her purity, piety and submissiveness. Her sole rights included, “The right to love whom others scorn, the right to comfort and to mourn, the right to shed new joy on earth, the right to feel the soul’s high worth, such woman’s rights a God will bless, and crown their champions with success.”[1]Those women who attained all of the qualities of the cult of domesticity were indeed successful in their womanhood, yet they were without identity.

Prior to the Victorian Era, all married women were completely dependent on their husbands. “The law, regarding a woman as only a part, even a chattel, of her husband, destroyed her independence, her identity, and her self-respect.”[2] According to the Common Law, the woman was seen as property of her husband, which let her think that she could only be the person that the world defined her as, instead of the person that she wanted to be. A saying in England went as follows, ““husband and wife are one person, and the husband is that person”, which confirms that women were being constantly oppressed by both the law and society.[3] Under the Common Law, applied to those who were married, the man would acquire all of his wives property, and all that would come to her during the marriage. He would also acquire her personal property, such as investments, furniture, etc., but was not allowed to dispose of it without permission of the wife. Society was no longer dependent on farming industry, which devalued the property exchanged in the common law, and aggrandized the importance of the inheritance of personal property. Although the woman was left with nothing of her own, the man was the provider of the family, and access to the woman’s property could be beneficial to the family, except in the case of those men who abused said privileges. The wife could not divorce her husband because legally, they were one person. Yet, as the roles of ethics and fairness gained importance under the law, the Common Law was modified. Prenuptial agreements were instated, which allowed women to have separate property from their husband. The woman was given the right to either sell her property or receive income from her it, and spend the money on her own. And most importantly, as the woman gained an identity under the law through the new importance of equity within the government, she could sue and be sued. While the woman was still to be seen as the caretaker of the house, and to succumb to the needs/wants of her husband, her role within society was progressing. Once the law was to acknowledge a woman’s individuality from her husband, it was up to the woman to empower herself, and let it be known that their gender was just as important.

Single, working class women tucked away their halos, and took a step into the world as working women. Yet while they might have regarded themselves as able, adroit employees, the rest of the male dominated society was not ready to let them attain positions of respect and worthy pay; the job options for women were low and the wages lower. Yet in factories, where seamstresses and textile workers were in demand, women were a perfect fit for the menial but exhausting work that was required. According to the evidence extracted by the Children’s Employment commission in 1841, “ordinary hours are greatly exceeded; if there is a drawing-room or grand fete, or mourning to be made, it often happens that the work goes on for 20 hours out of the 24, occasionally all night....The general result of the long hours and sedentary occupation is to impair seriously and very frequently to destroy the health of the young women. The digestion especially suffers, and also the lungs: pain to the side is very common, and the hands and feet die away from want of circulation and exercise”[4]. The manual labor demanded of women was grueling, and they were provided with little money to compensate for their hard efforts, leaving them sick and poor.

Women turned to a less respectable, but money making job of prostitution, as either a full time or secondary occupation. “Indeed, the standard of living of prostitutes was perceptibly higher than other working women. A prostitute, even a sailor’s woman, could earn the weekly wages of a respectable working woman in a day, at a shilling a ‘shot’. Prostitutes had a room of their own; they dressed better; they had spending money and access to the pub, the principal facility in the working-class neighborhood that provided heat, light, cooked food, and conviviality.”[5] Prostitution was merely a form of income, and a plentiful one too; an easy source to provide for their necessities in a restricting working world. The working world was restricting to them because of the vicious cycle enforced by a narrow-minded society. Women weren’t allowed into college, leaving them uneducated and unable to pursue a respected career, which contributed to society’s view of them as an unsuccessful, unable gender. Even though “some saw prostitution as a threatening and illegitimate form of social behavior,” others “came to understand and tolerate prostitution as one of a series of strategies adopted by women to survive”.[6] While the torturous conditions of the working world drove many women into a disabling pit of no return, some women found a way to survive and prosper through the not so respectable, but rational job of prostitution.

While equal opportunities and rights for women as students were restricted, receiving an education, and proving to themselves that they could work as hard as their “wiser” gender, presented a great step forwards. In 1837, there were four universities in England, yet none allowed female students. Yet as Britain persisted in proving themselves strong in the new industrial outbreak, there was urgency to experiment with education.[7] In time, Oxford and Cambridge gave women the opportunity to attend their schools, yet didn’t give them the opportunity to thrive within the community as well as say, a male student. They were treated unfairly in that they were not given fair grades, and they weren’t allowed to graduate with degrees. Women were considered the less cerebral—unable to memorize facts and principles, and function pragmatically as a man would. The women at Cambridge and Oxford were so adamant about proving themselves as equally intelligent students that they worked very hard and displayed good behavior to prove their maturity. By the end of Queen Victorians reign, there were twelve universities in London that allowed the attendance of women.[8] While the women may not have been given fair grades, they were being educated in some of the best schools in the world, and being given the chance to grow. Once educated, they had a better chance of succeeding the working world and obtaining their feminist goals of equality.

The women of the Victorian Era maintained many hardships, yet took a bold step forward into a society that didn’t believe in their abilities. Formerly restricted to the requirements of the cult of domesticity, where their greatest accomplishments were to succumb to the needs of the man, practice religion, provide a safe and happy home, and to be proper and pure, the women of England slowly crept into a higher form of equilibrium with their opposing gender. Women were given the authority over their own property, the chance to be educated, and maintain their own finances. Though there were fights ahead for impartiality within the school systems, working fields, and even within the law, women were grasping their chance to be on their own and exhibit their potential.

[1] The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood. Professor Catharine Lavender. The College of Staten Island <http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html>

[2] Martha Vicinus, A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women, (London; Indiana University Press, 1977), p. 3.

[4] Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women's Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press. <http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/seamstress.html>

[5] Martha Vicinus, A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women, (London; Indiana University Press, 1977), p. 76.