Woman’s

World

In the 19th Century

Portrait of Miss Margaret Henderson by John William Waterhouse, 1900

“Victorian”

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Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean

The Corset

Camille Clifford

• Corsets, crinolines, hoopskirts exaggerate hips, breasts, waist

• Impede movement,

breathing

• Foster unrealistic

image of woman’s

body

Cutaway view of crinoline, Punch, 1856

Idealization of Woman as Angel/Goddess/Fairy/Moth

er

• Paradox of ideal vs. real

• “The Angel in the House” (Coventry Patmore)

• “Blessed Damozel”

• “Lady of Shalott” (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Emily Patmore, “The Angel in the House” by John Brettx

Goddess

The Blessed Damozel by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Fairy

Midsummer’s Eve by Edward Robert Hughes

Angel

Angel by Abbot Handerson Thayer, 1889

Mother

Woman’s highest calling

Mother and Child by Lord Leighton

Influence of

Queen Victoria 1819-1901

• Icon of femininie domesticity

• Devoted wife to Albert and mother of nine

• Retreated to seclusion at Albert’s death in 1861

Portrait of Queen VictoriaSir Francis Grant, 1843

Impact of Industrial Revolution

“Separate Spheres”

Social theory enforcing gender polarity

Home Work Place

Separate Spheres

• Men are rational, independent, competitive, and aggressive

• Women are emotional, maternal, domestic, and dependent.

• Men leave home to work: “public sphere”

(business & politics) • Men have permission for moral laxity• Women rule the home and are confined to it: “private

sphere”• Role of helpmeet, domestic manager, moral exemplum• Home is haven from factory, firm, “world”• Plush décor reflects cocooning

• All wealth owned, inherited, or earned went legally to husband until 1882

• Divorce extremely rare

for woman to secure • Inheritance through

male line• Until 1891, runaway wife

could be arrested and imprisoned• Husband could divorce for adultery; wife could not.

Marriage

1850 Wedding Attire Victorian wedding attire

AccidentalPregnancy

• Birth control literature

illegal• Activities heavily chaperoned--unwed pregnancy in upper

class rare • Domestic servants often seduced by employer (typically

expelled from house)• Infant abandonment/murder common• Unwed mother could sue father in court for child support

Richard Redgrave’s The Outcast 1851

Careers

• Low-paid jobs only

• 1851, 43% of British women over 20 had no husband (30% single, 13% widowed)

• 90% of these worked

19th century milliners

“Upper” Work

• Upper” tradeswomen in

towns: milliners &

dressmakers

• “Upper” servants of the

wealthy: governesses,

skilled cooks, housekeepers, senior parlour-maids, head house-maids and lady's maids

“Lower” Work• Lower working classes:

– began work age 8-12– Worked until marriage if . . .– All earnings belonged to husband

• “Lower” street hawkers: flowers,

sweets, seafood, and fortune-telling• Lower servants of middle class: kitchen-maid, scullery-

maid, laundress, nursemaid, housemaid• Single “maid-of-all-work”: 14-16 hours/day

Domestic Servants• Largest category of woman’s work--50%

1880-1890

No job-No family• Charity of wealthy benefactors or church

• Prostitution

• Begging

• Workhouses

• Suicide

Watts’ Found Drowned

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

Acknowledgements• Young servant: www.history.powys.org.uk

• Wedding gowns: www.victoriana.com

• Milliners: www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare/womens_work_02.shtml

• Hunt’s “The Awakening Conscience”: www.csun.edu/~jaa7021/h498/part3.htm

• Corsets: www.staylace.com/gallery/index.html

• Crinoline: www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/victcfsh.html

• Camille Clifford: www.staylace.com/gallery

• Queen Victoria: www.victorianweb.org

• Servants: www.sensibility.com/vintageimages/victorian/

• Leighton Mother: www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/leighton_mother.htm

• Pirates of the Carribean: www.erasofelegance.com

• Hughes: www.denison.edu/art/fairy

• Waterhouse’s Portrait of Miss Margaret Henderson: http://.cgfa.sunsite.dk/

• Thayer Angel: www.fineartcompanyltd.co.uk