As I explore other Victorian sites and blogs on the Web, I see a very clear picture of the Victorian woman - or rather, I see that many people have what they think is a clear picture of the Victorian woman. This is the image of the repressed, suppressed, corset-laced, fragile flower who has been denied the right to think or act for herself. She spends most of her days doing dainty needlework or plinking out tunes on the piano. She is subject to the tyranny of her menfolk, and no one imagines that she has a brain in her head. Her entire purpose in life is to serve her family - her parents, her husband, her children.
Certainly this fragile flower existed. But one reason it's so easy to regard the Victorian era as oppressive toward women is that it is perhaps the first era in history when women found a voice to talk about such oppression. And they quickly moved from talking about it to doing something about it.
If you're a female reader, you should know that a great many of the advantages we take for granted today were won by the Victorian woman. It was the Victorian woman who first won the right to go to college in England or America - a process that began with winning the right to attend at all and ended with the right to actually earn the same degrees that were granted to men. It was the Victorian woman who first entered medical school. It was the Victorian woman who managed to achieve the right to work for a living without being socially "ruined."
Reviewing Victorian articles over time provides a fascinating way to explore the changing world of the Victorian woman. In 1881, we have an article on a group of women who decide to take a walking tour - without male chaperones! In 1881, this was a bold step, and one that the author admits they could not have considered even a few years earlier. In the 1890's, the controversy has shifted to whether women should ride bicycles. By this time, even though many feel it's unladylike, the vast majority of Victorian women are so accustomed to new freedoms that they pay little heed to such warnings - and discover a whole new world of emancipation that comes with having one's own transportation.
Yes, Victorian women embroidered. They also did a great deal more, as I hope this section will show!
- Issues Facing the Victorian Woman
- The "Ideal" Woman
- Women and Marriage
- Woman's Suffrage: Too Fragile to Vote?
- Laws Affecting the Woman and the Home
- Women's Achievements
- Educating the Victorian Woman
- Women's Education: Should She or Shouldn't She?
- Women's Colleges, Universities & Degree Programs
- Extensions, Home Study & Correspondence Programs
- Women at Work
- Should She Work?
- Jobs Suitable for Gentlewoman
- Women at Work: First-Hand Accounts
- Women's Working Conditions
- • See also The Victorian Working World for more about jobs for the Victorian woman
- More About the Victorian Woman
- Women and Sports
- Women and the Bicycle
- Women's Clubs & Organizations
- Women in America
- Women Around the World
- Jennie June's "Talks with Women"
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