What Role Did Women Play In The Victorian Era

The role of women during the Victorian era was to raise the children and to keep her husband happy. Many Victorian women had to marry, and it was not an option not to be, because it was necessary for survival.

Women during this era had to remain innocent and were expected to remain as such until proposal. Sexual activity was acceptable, as long as the couple intended to marry. Once the Victorian woman has married, everything she owned now belongs to her husband by law. She was now completely owned and supervised by her husband.

The husband has total control over his wife, her possessions, and her body. It was legal for a man to beat and marital rape his wife because she was considered his property. Motherhood was separated from pleasurable

Most young women middle to low class were not able to attend school because it was thought of as the woman belongs at home to attend to the children and to be ready for when her husband when he arrives home.

Life expectancy was short in the nineteenth century. Woman suffered from what was called “green sickness” because women suffered from severe anemic most of the foods that were high in protein they were not permitted to eat. Many women were not allowed to eat red meat because it was considered a “masculine” food.

It was not “ladylike” to have a hearty appetite. Women were expected to be delicate, prim and proper. Dressing; was also another form of abuse, one example is the Corset. The Corset was the tighten of the laces in the back to achieve a very small waist. Some women had to have their liver split just to become sixteen inches in the waist.

Times have surely changed from the Victorian era for women. We now have rights, to dress, live, love whom we choose, own our own businesses, vote, hold power in the offices, freely speak our opinions, and much more. We are able to makes choices about our own lives and I couldn’t agree more with the saying “We’ve come a long way baby”! Virginia Slims-