Victorian Women in England

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Victorian Women in England

• Dracula

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Assignment

• As you learn about ideals of womanhood in
  Victorian England, compare and contrast the
  ideals with both Lucy and Mina in Dracula. What
  about it is the same? What is different? How
  can we learn about the characters based on the
  historical information?

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Overview Victorian Era 1837-1901

• A womans place was considered to be in the home.
  Then the mood changed as it became more
  acceptable for women to work in charitable
  organizations. This allowed women to start
  serving outside of the home.

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Womanhood

• Domesticity and motherhood were considered by
  society to be sufficient for emotional
  fulfillment.
• Femininity was centered on the family, motherhood
  and respectability.
• Queen Victoria was the perfect example of
  womanhood in the time period inspired the
  country to act that way as well.

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Ideal Woman

• Mrs. Frances Goodby
• her ardent and unceasing flow of spirits,
  extreme activity and diligence, her punctuality,
  uprightness and remarkable frugality, combined
  with a firm reliance on Godcarried her through
  the severest times of pressure, both with credit
  and respectability

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Ideal Woman

• Life centered on home and family
• Good and virtuous
• Pious, respectable and busy
• No life of leisure
• Constant devotion to her husband as well as to
  God
• Helper to husband and domestic manager

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Ideal Woman, cont.

• Moral duty toward families, husbands and society
  as a whole.
• NOT a weak, passive creature rather a busy,
  able and upright figure who drew strength from
  moral superiority and virtue through service to
  others.

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Female clothing

• Female body dressed to emphasize a womans
  separation from the world of work.
• Wore dresses that resembled interior furnishings
  (cozy, plush fabrics, heavy curtains, fussy
  furnishings)
• Womens fashions were to show off the body
  corsets large skirts to make the waist smaller
  the chest, hips and bottom bigger.

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Servants

• Most middle class families only had one servant
  could help with the hard physical labor of
  running a house, but not to provide leisure time.
• Fetching boiling water
• Washing ironing clothes
• Washing scrubbing floor with sand
• Making clothes, underclothes, linens, etc.

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Wife and Motherhood

• Spent time with children
• Played with and educated them
• Responded emotionally to infants and bonded with
  them through constant attendance
• Marriage signified a womans maturity and
  respectability. Motherhood was a confirmation
  that a woman entered the world of womanly virtue
  and female fulfillment.

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Wife and Motherhood, cont.

• Motherhood was expected of a married woman and
  the childless single woman was a figure to be
  pitied.
• Childless, single women were encouraged to find
  work caring for children as a governess or a
  nursery maid.

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Charity work

• Mother and baby homes
• Kindergartens
• Temperance (no alcohol) campaigns
• Health and hygiene reform
• Anyone who was deemed worthy of help and
  conditions required for charity.

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New Woman

• From 1890-1920 women were 55 of all high school
  graduates
• By 1920 two million women were in clerical
  positions (secretaries, stenographers, etc.)
• Stressed womens duties as well as womens rights.