Women in Victorian Britain

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Women in Victorian Britain

• Rights and Views.

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• During the whole of the 19th Century women had no
  political rights though there had been some
  movements in other areas to advance the rights of
  women.

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Advancements

• In 1839, a law was passed which stated that if a
  marriage broke down and the parents separated,
  children under seven years of age should stay
  with their mother

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• In 1857, women could divorce husbands who were
  cruel to them or husbands who had left them.

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• In 1870, women were allowed to keep money they
  had earned.

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• In 1891, women could not be forced to live with
  husbands unless they wished to

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• These were very important laws which advanced the
  rights of women. However, they were good laws on
  paper. If a woman left her husband for whatever
  reason, it would have been very difficult for her
  to keep herself and children simply because the
  attitude of Victorian Britain was that women
  should stay at home and look after their husbands

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• The culture of the time meant that very few women
  were skilled in any obvious profession and,
  therefore, there were few jobs that paid well for
  women during the nineteenth century.

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• This view was supported by Queen Victoria - she
  hardly did anything to advance the cause of
  women. In 1870, Queen Victoria had written "let
  women be what God intended, a helpmate for man,
  but with totally different duties and
  vocations." 

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Example of the problems

• As an example of the difficulties women faced,
  one lady called Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
  against all the odds qualified as a doctor.
  However, she got very few people on her books in
  London as men would not be treated by a woman and
  women tended to remain with their male GP's as
  that was the way it was done. It took a long time
  before Anderson got a decent reputation among
  Londoners - and she faced much hostility along
  the way.

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Type of Employment Number of women employed
Domestic Servants 1,740,000
Teachers 124,000
Nurses 68,000
Doctors 212
Architects 2