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The Contradictions Of Women During The Victorian Era

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The Victorian Era took place during 1837- 1901 and is known as Queen Victoria’s time period. She was the first English monarch to see her name given to a time period while living. It was a time of rapid advances in scientific, technological and medical knowledge, and even population growth. Although Victorian England was based around the ideals of proper etiquette and maintaining “high society”, the treatment of women during the Victorian Era highlights the contradictions of this time. Families in the Victorian Society were known to be rather large consisting of 6 children if they were wealthy but even larger if they were poor. Women during the 1870’s were known to have on average six children, but women towards the 1910’s were more likely to have three on average. Victorian houses differed if you were poor or wealthy. Wealthy families were known to have large extravagant homes with several bedrooms, large living rooms, parlors and dining rooms separate from the kitchens. Poor families on the other hand were crowded into one room that sometimes had to hold families of about twelve children plus the parents. Poor families had more children because it meant that there were more able bodies to go to work and make money. There are four social …show more content…

In the Victorian times it was better for a woman to accept the fact that their place was in the home taking care of children, cooking, and keeping the house clean. If a wife separated from her husband and they had one or multiple kids together, then she would lose all of her rights to see her kids. It was not until 1887 that the Married Woman’s Property Act was established. It gave women the right to own her own property (Thomas and Thomas). Marriage was looked at as voluntary. The woman had to do all of her tasks after she completed what she was asked to do by her husband. Marriage was about companionship as well as authority (Tosh 24 and

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