Gender Roles In The Victorian Era

British women in the nineteenth century lived in an age characterized by gender inequality. At the beginning of the century, women relished few of the legal, social, or political rights, as they could not vote, or had control over their personal property

The Victorian Era women was vastly different than the female we think of nowadays. Women during that time were expected to fulfill more of a domestic and motherly role, one that stayed at home and took care of the house. They were confined within the private sphere of the world while the men toiled away in the public sphere. The ideal Victorian women was described as:

These norms were influenced by various factors such as economy, domesticity, gender roles, religion, imperialism, and much more. Amid the period symbolized by the rule of British ruler Queen Victoria, women were not liable to have the right to sue, suffrage rights, or the right to own property. In the meantime, women took part in the paid workforce in expanding numbers taking after the Industrial Revolution. Feminist ideas spread among the informed female working classes, the women's suffrage movement picked up force and discriminatory laws were cancelled in the last years of the Victorian age. In the Victorian Era, women were thought as only fitting in with the domestic sphere and this stereotype obliged them to limit themselves only to their household and raising children. Alex Owen puts this Victorian ideal of woman in words as “ The categorisation of so-called female virtues found its expression in the sentimental and idealised notion of the spiritually refined ‘angel in the house’- woman as an angelic creature whose rightful sphere of influence was the home and domesticity” (7). By making domesticity seem desirable to the Victorian women they used such tools in order to keep them behind doors. Owen further explains the Victorian feminine roles by pointing out, “In analysing many discourses which together constituted the Victorian ideology of femininity, including the domestic literature written for, and often by, women, it becomes clear that perspective understanding was underpinned by certain major constituents. Among the most important of these was the notion of innate female passivity, a negative attribute constructed in opposition to so-called masculine will-power. Along with this went the concepts of female frailty, constructed in opposition to a standard masculine strength and virility; a moral and spiritual sensibility which acted as the

In the Victorian era, the people have to uphold their reputations to be accepted by society. Women, especially have harder expectations to live up to. Women are told to stay home and take care of the family. Women are meant to be at home in the kitchen, waiting to serve their husbands. Society also expects women to follow the

In the 1800s, the U.S. became more industrialized and factories started to become more common. This was the beginning of the market revolution, where people buy and sell goods instead of making everything by themselves. People could trade the money they earn from working for the things they needed. As the market revolution thrust workers into new systems of production, it redefined gender roles of women in family and society. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the market revolution played a significant role in changes in gender roles.

Life in the early nineteenth century wasn’t so easy different gender roles were just starting to take place; where men did the dirty work and women were taught to do the house work. Some women cleaned; took care of children; and having a meal prepared for the children and husband. The American Industrial Revolution transformed daily life by creating a middle class, shifting from predominately rural home life, to urban head-quarters and reclassifying gender roles in the home life. The middle class had started to form a few years before the start of nineteenth century. By the time the Industrial Revolution had started children and women were seen as a different matter other than just property to the man or a new way to earn money.

Women in the Victorian society had two main goals which were to marry a respectable man and to have/raise children. The society had a vision of the “perfect woman” who did what she was told and did not question it. She did what her mother did before her, and her mother did what her mother did before her. They were constricted, as if they lived in a box. They couldn’t go too far forward or backward and they couldn’t tray too far off the sides. There were high standards and a true Victorian woman upheld those standards no matter how she felt about them. Victorian women were not their own; they were property-- property that was owned by their husbands or fathers.

The theme for this week is gender roles in Victorian Britain before and after 1860. The roles of a male and female starting from a child to an adult varied between the two. Men were generally independent while women were dependent, which affected their progression in society. It wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century were women able to have more of an education and the right to divorce However, during the Victorian period men dominated the workforce and politics. Though the working class, middle class, and upper class experience different levels of accepting norms.

Social standing, and moral values were vital elements in Victorian society, and the fundamental doctrine of establishing this ideology, began at home. The home provided a refuge from the rigour, uncertainty, anxiety, and potential violence of the outside world. (P, 341) A woman’s role was to provide a safe, stable, and well-organised environment for their husbands and families. However, change was on the horizon with an underlying movement of business and domestic changes both home and abroad, with industrialization, and the suffragist movement. Women were beginning to gain autonomy and began to grasp their opportunities, thus significantly curtailing male supremacy and the definable acceptable ‘role’ of the woman.

There was no equality between man and woman in the Victorian era. “The patriarchic system was the norm and women usually led a more secluded, private life. Men, on the other hand, possessed all kinds of freedom” (“Gender Roles”). Moreover, “the man was naturally the head of the family and the guardian of family members. He was the protector and the lord.

Gender roles are determined by the behavior, attitude, physical strength and the mental being of one. The Victorian era was a crucial time period for gender roles. Men and women’s roles became more strictly defined than at any point in history. Victorian women were known as having the “simple” tasks and not having much “duty”. During this time period, it was all about the “women and the world” and “women and the house.”

The Victorian era was not the greatest time for women. The pressure to be a prim and proper lady was stronger than ever. Queen Victoria herself even set ridiculous standards for how a women should act. She was a firm believer in the domestic spheres. The domestic spheres is a social theory that each gender has a specific role to play in society and neither can crossover to the other sphere.

The world is seeking for equalities nowadays, civil equality, social equality, political equality, etc. And among all these equalities, the most important and most basic equality is gender equality. Gender equality does not seem to be a problem now, but back in the days, Victorian Era for example, there is no gender equality. A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibson, described the development of a woman, Nora Helmer, who lived in the Victorian Era, from her husband’s doll-wife to an independent individual. The way Nora’s husband, Torvald Helmer, treated her illustrates that in the Victorian Era, women had no rights, the role they played in the society are housewives, and their existence is only for pleasing their husbands and to be a part of their husband’s property.

In the Victorian era, the status of women in society was extremely oppressive and, by modern standards, atrocious. Women had few rights, in or outside of the home. Married women in this period relied on men almost completely as they had few rights or independence. With this mindset in focus,

In the Victorian era, women were expected to fulfill specific gender roles. Women possessed feminine qualities such as being nurturing, pure and docile, while men were expected to be bold and independent.