Women's Rights In The Victorian Era

The texts ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ (1845) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ (1926). Both explore the universal values of idealised love, limitation of time and hope of restoration. As such inherently reflected through their relevant contexts of the Victorian Era and 1920’s Jazz age value systems. Even though the text share similar themes their interpretation completely differ influenced by diverse historical context, personal experiences and human values.

Women in the 1800s were stripped of their voice, not only were they unable to vote, they were often kept from speaking openly in public. Their lack of rights left them dependent on men (Bonnie and Ruthsdotter). The American Women were voiceless, they had no say in society, however the reform movement would change that. Married women had very little rights compared to husband. One major human right violation was women 's lack of property rights.. Even if the property belonged to their family, once they were married that land became their husbands. In divorce and custody battles, mostly favored the husband. In any case of divorce, women had no legal rights to their children (Bonnie and Ruthsdotter). The institution of marriage stripped women of their rights. State property laws prohibiting women from owning property. Consequently, anything they owed were their husbands now, all earnings went to straight into their husbands pockets (Bonnie and Ruthsdotter). Besides from having no right in the eyes of the law, women also had many limitations regarding education and the workforce. Women were not allowed to enter many professions including medicine and law. Girls

Women in the 1600s to the 1800s were very harshly treated. They were seen as objects rather than people. They were stay-at-home women because people didn’t trust them to hold jobs. They were seen as little or weak.

In Antebellum America, gender roles were an important factor in how society ran socially and politically. A middle to upper class woman in the North would rarely be seen outside her home. Women were to be submissive, fragile and stay inside the bounds of their private sphere, which was the home. Men were to be the breadwinners, masculine, and politically engaged. Gender roles in the South were somewhat different than that of the North, but were still heavily patriarchal. Women had little to no say in anything in their personal lives as well as politically because they did not have the right to vote. However, in the mid 1830’s to 1840’s, different moral reform movements such as temperance, sexual morality and abolition swept the Middle-Atlantic

give us a first-hand insight into what life may have being like during the Victorian

Women’s life in the 1600’s were not your idea life. Women in the 1600s roles were very limited. Women were considered to be inferior to men. They were consider to be the weaker sex, physically and mentally. The thought was that women needed a male figure to take care of them. Women were single there Father or brother would look after them until their married. Then there husband would take over that responsibility. Women who were happy were married. Marriage was desirable for men and women. Men were considered to be the head of the marriages. Even though men were at the top they couldn’t beat or mistreat their wives. If so they would’ve been prosecuted or prevented from living with the woman. The men received the social rights to full educations, to property, and to vote, and the women were seen as, essentially, second-class citizens, relying on their husbands or fathers for near everything. Women at this time had a minimum level of education. Women were only allowed to get their education at home or at an elementary school; the luckier, upper-class women were sometimes gifted with private tutors. They weren’t allowed to enter professions such ass law, politics, medicine, politics and other high professions. They were mostly allowed to be cooks and maids. The lower jobs of society. Women usually had no life out of their home. Women who were owners of their own businesses establishments were called “Feme Sole Traders”. They didn’t have any help or support for them. They were looked down on. Women who were not

Throughout history, men have always dominated. They never let a woman rise to power or have the same rights. This sexism has been ingrained in society for thousands of years, so much so that it has defined some of the most famous works of literature, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This play was written during the Elizabethan Era, an era in which a woman had all the power imaginable (Queen Elizabeth), and yet, women were still severely discriminated against. Women had no say whatsoever in their society; they were not allowed to vote and they had very few legal rights (Papp, Joseph, Kirkland). They were could not enter the professions (lawyer, priest, doctor, etc.) and they by law, needed the permission of a husband, father, or any male-head

Women’s place and role in the society is something that has been discussed and changed over time. Should their rights be the same as men’s? Should they be superior? Inferior? The world faces a dilemma on weather they should be or not equal as men. It seems like we arrived at a deadlock, where no progress can be made about it. We still have feminists fighting for their rights, but I doesn’t seem to work that much, although they have much more rights than they had fifty years ago. But the question that remains is: what is women’s and men’s role?

For decade women have been discriminated by society, all around the world. In many countries women are still treated as the inferior sex. “daily life for women in the early 1800s in Europe(Britain), was that of many obligations and few choices. Some even compare the conditions of women in time as a form of slavery.” (Smith, Kelley. "Lives of Women in the Early 1800s." Lives of Women in the Early 1800s. N.p., 2002.) Women have always been expected to find a husband, get marry and have children and nothing less was expected of them. Women during decades ago and even today in 2017, many women live by the norm that if you don’t get marry you’re a dishonor/disgrace to the family. Many men treated women as objects and without a doubt not as equals.

Augustus Egg’s “The Travelling Companion” portrays two young women sitting in opposite direction inside a moving train carriage. The painting is almost symmetrical as there are many similarities between the two ladies. However, there are also subtle differences between them which enforces the main themes of this painting through symbolism adding layers of meaning in its reading.

America the brave, wasn’t so beautiful during its early years. It hasn’t always been the land of the free like how it was instilled in us when we were children. I’ve grown up thinking that America had been such a place. There was countless times that America was faced with making decisions that were incredibly undemocratic. For instance , Women’s rights, religious freedom, and rights for slaves were virtually nonexistent. Occasionally the colonist made the right choices like indentured servants, who were people that worked for a certain amount of time then were allowed to go.People don’t know the truth about the unhinged history of Colonial America.

It’s no secret that a gender norm for women was that they had to be completely subservient to men, or more accurately their husbands. For example the “Diversity in colonial times” article states, “Colonial cultural norms reflected European patriarchal values, which became embedded in English law. For example, a woman’s marriage automatically transferred the legal ownership of the bride’s personal property—money, land, household goods, and clothing—to her husband. If he died, the property went to the children, not her, with male heirs receiving larger inheritances than their sisters. Even children could become the wards of the father’s male relatives and not of his widow. In the rare instance of a divorce, the father indisputably retained custody of the children.” This demonstrates how the gender norms in English law prevented women from becoming truly independent once they got married they became their husband’s property, and everything became the man’s property. The general inequality between men and women was the norm and this could stem from religion because of the story of Adam and eve, and in that story eve is weak and disobeys gods will and as a result women are seen as weak and inferior to men. Since religion plays a big role in the seventeenth century life style they adopted some of those beliefs and it became a gender norm that women are perceived as

During the victorian times women were to be oppressed by their husbands. They had no legal rights. Women were not considered to be equal to men. Women were not allowed to do many things such as partake in politics and have control over men. Their only importance was to cook, clean birth babies and support their husbands quietly. It was socially accepted that women were to be totally subordinate to the men in there family. Women in this time period did not have her own identity, she was under the ruling of her husband. In the drama A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, The character Nora Helmer uses her relationships with her husband and friends to show characteristics of Feminism in her true identity during

The 20th century saw a major increase in women’s rights, getting a step nearer to gender equality. It is defined as the act of treating men and women equally, having the same access to right and opportunities no matter the gender. Although it is not a reality in our world, we do have advanced in comparison to the last century. At the begging of the 20th century women still were considered the weak gender. Their education consisted on learning practical skills such as sewing, cooking, and using the new domestic inventions of the era; unfortunately, this “formal training offered women little advantage in the struggle for stable work at a liveable wage” (1). Their role in society was believed to be that of wife and mother but our mind was changing. Women started to fight for some rights such as the access to the labour force during World War I, the improvement in education allowing women to attend university, and the equality within the marriage, in order to avoid subordination of women. Probably their greatest achievement was the access to the electoral process in the United States of America. Earning the right to vote meant a recognition of women power and intelligence, as well as their ability to participate in politics. This essay will analyze how women fought for their right through some feminist movements.

The Victorian era was the beginning of women questioning the patriarchal standards of society. Women were oppressed, and confined to the house. Society expected women to have children, raise them and run the household while the husband had opportunities to work and to even make something of themselves in society by working their way up. The working class women had the