THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE VICTORIAN AGE

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE VICTORIAN AGE

In the Victorian era women were seen as pure and clean. Because of this view, their bodies were seen as temples which should not be adorned with jewelery nor used for physical exertion or pleasurable sex. The role of women was to have children and tend to the house in contrast to men, according to the concept of Victorian masculinity. Although, women had been discriminated simply because of their sex; they did not stop fighting for their rights. In fact, women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were involved in the Antislavery Crusade in the 19th century. Stanton along with Mott marked history by starting a reform about women's rights at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. Stanton fought for her rights and changed the perspective of many egotistical people not only through her logic, but with the rights that our founding fathers had given us through the Declaration of Independence. Fortunately, she made a positive impact for women in history giving us equal rights and most importantly the right to vote. Women like Margaret Fuller was one of first women to take advantage of her rights by shining her potential and becoming the first woman literary editor. Even though women were given rights; they still struggled for their independence. The ideology of women being seen as their husbands' "property" was also reflected in the household. For instance, women could not manage their own sexual activity or had any protection against physical abuse.
WOMEN AS GENERALS OF HOUSEHOLD
The first mention of a woman being described as the general of a household was in 1876 by Isabella Beeton in her manual Mrs Beeton's book of Household Management. Here she explained that the mistress of a household is comparable to the Commander of an Army or the leader of an enterprise. In order to run a respectable household and secure the happiness, comfort and well-being of her family she must perform her duties intelligently and thoroughly. For example, she has to organize, delegate and instruct her servants; she has to be the "sick-nurse" who takes care of ill family members. This requires a good temper, compassion for suffering and sympathy with sufferers, quiet manners, love of order and cleanliness; all qualities a woman worthy of the name should possess in the 19th century. A very special connection existed between women and their brothers. Sisters had to treat their brothers as they would treat their future husbands. Also, it was difficult to establish a reputation. For example, if one person in a family did something horrible, the whole family would have to suffer the consequences. Women as generals of households were very common. Women always were basically the generals of a strict and proper household.
WOMEN'S WORK
Large numbers of working class women worked in factories or in the garment industry or in laundries or at various other jobs. From the mid-1850s nursing became a respectable occupation for women. In England nursing schools were started to give women a proper training. Women were increasingly employed in offices in the later part of the century, the invention of the typewriter led to an increase in office jobs for women, as they were found to make better typists than men. When the telephone was invented they were employed as telephone switchboard operators. Some women broke into professions like medicine, law, and journalism.
WOMEN AND SEX
Victorian society preferred to avoid talking about sex. Although this is difficult to do, sexual activities were highly regulated in Europe by church and state law. Sexuality, viewed by the doctrines of medieval church, was considered as a gift from God; they followed the teachings of St. Paul and encouraged a life of chastity. Church law also ruled out sexual activities between the same genders and placed sexual limitations on married couples. Sexual relations were solely for the purpose of reproduction; therefore the church opposed sexual relations for the intentions of solely obtaining pleasure. As for adultery, courts treated women and men differently. They typically granted more severe consequences to female adulterers than to males. Courts argued that it was not right that a woman's child from a father not her husband should inherit her husband's property. Women were thought to be emotional, not intelligent and in charge of the household.
WOMEN AS EDUCATIONAL INEQUALS
In the early part of the Victorian era, girls of the upper and middle class were educated mainly in fashionable 'accomplishments' like French, drawing, painting, singing, dancing, etc. However, in the later part of the century girls education was taken more seriously and schools were started which offered girls an education broadly modelled on that of boys of the same class, with an emphasis on academic subjects and outdoor games. The expansion of the educational system for poor children meant that both boys and girls of the working class were guaranteed a basic education. From the 1870s, women's colleges were started in places like Oxford and Cambridge, which offered female students an education on a par with men's, though it wasn't until the 20th century that they gained full acceptance by the universities.
REFORMING DIVORCE LAW
Great changes in the situation of women took place in the 19th century, especially concerning marriage laws and the legal status of women. The situation that fathers always received custody of their children, leaving the mother completely without any rights, slowly started to change. In fact lots of imporatnt reforms and acts were made. For example was gave women limited access to divorce and was extended access to children to all women in the event of separation or divorce. Also while the husband only had to prove his wife's adultery, a woman had to prove her husband had not only committed adultery but also incest, bigamy, cruelty or desertion. An important change was caused by an amendment that made a woman an independent and separate person. From 1886 women could be made the sole guardian of their children if their husband died.
SECOND-CLASS CITIZEN
Even if Britain's head of state was a woman, Queen Victoria, women could not vote. But for much of the Victorian era neither could most men. The franchise was extended to include most men in towns and some countrymen in 1867, which doubled the electorate. However, agricultural labourers did not get the vote until 1884. Many women did not consider the vote to be of much importance anyway and some men were opposed to the idea of women getting involved in politics. They thought women would be better occupied concentrating on improving healthcare, education, and social services.

Silvia Licciardi, Eleonora Lenci

http://5b-english4us.blogspot.ca/2009/01/role-of-women-in-victorian-age.html

Occupations, Traveling, Social Classes, Prostitution, Pregnancy and their rights

 
Jobs

In the Victorian Era, most women were house wives. These women stayed at home and tended to the house and family, but there were a small percentage of women that had other occupations. About 3% of all white women during the Victorian era and 25% of all black women were part of the working force and worked for wages. Most of these women were either a maid, nurse, laundress, teacher, psychiatrist, or social worker. Since there were so few women who worked at these jobs, only 9 out of every 10 homes had domestic help (maid, nurse, or laundress). Besides these jobs there is also another way that some wives stayed at home and earned money. This was by farming; some farm wives earned money from selling butter, milk, and other farm products that they produced on their farm.
 
 
TRAVEL

During the Victorian era, for the most part, women never traveled alone. Most women traveled with their husbands and family to specific locations. The men of the Victorian Era believed that a women's place was at home. They also thought that it was completely useless and they should just stay at home and tend to the house. It was very expensive so only wealthy women could afford these adventures, but most of the time wealthy women's apparel stopped them. They wore corsets, high heeled shoes, long skirts, and other heavy clothing. When it came to the daring women, their motive was usually to escape gender discrimination, to explore other territories, or to further a certain cause.
One of these women that was brave enough to venture out of their own town was Isabella Bird. Isabella traveled when she was younger with her father who was a minister of the Church of England. Eventually she developed a passion for travel and traveled by herself. Even though she had a physical disability, she still was able to overcome this and become a respectable Victorian women traveler. Isabella traveled all over the world to places such as Japan, China, Korea, Persia, Tibet, and the United States.
 
WEALTHY CLASS
 
Wealthy women in society did not have a very difficult life. Their day consisted of activities like sewing, visiting family/friends/paupers,
reading, writing letters, entertaining visitors, and dancing. Although they
did have a variety of activities to do, their days mostly consisted of the same routines.
One of their favorite things to do was to go out to evening parties. If the woman were married, she would often go out with four or
five other couples. If the women were single, she was most likely go out with other unmarried women.
The household wife would dress according to how
wealthy the family was. The more comely looking she appeared to be, the more money the family had.
Also the nicer clothing was equipped with beading, lace, and other jewels. Also, these women changed their clothes up to six times daily
MIDDLE CLASS

Middle class women can almost be considered guides to the lower class women. During their free time, they would go and help the pauper class women. They would sponsor mothers and babies homes, kindergartens, and health and hygiene reforms. To sponsor someone means that you pledge a certain amount of money, in this case, to get these woman's daily necessities. Although all of these middle class women had cleaning servants for their homes, they would lecture the lower class women on how to keep their houses clean. This just shows that just because the upper class women had a bit more moneyin their pocket, they felt they were superior to these women who actually had to work for their own money.The goal of these middle class women was to marry into a wealthy relationship. This allowed the women to get more respect from the upper class society and get more goods
 

LOWER CLASS

 
The lower class women were not treated very fairly. They normally wore fifth hand clothing; they (sometimes servants) ate the left over food of the higher class people.It was very likely for unmarried women to be classified as a pauper. After having a father or a husband die, barely any money or land was left in the will to the daughter or wife; it was mostly given to the oldest son or another close male relative.For the servants and wives, housework took a lot of physical energy. Some of the tools that they used were treadle sewing machines, mechanical wringers, and cast-iron stove. During the day wives that were their own house maids made clothes, cared for the sick, and grew and processed food that their family ate. Women did not only do this for their family, they prepared and sold food to others too. Also, they wove and repaired fishing nets. Other jobs for the lower class women were barmaids, chambermaids, waitresses', and working in factories. Working in factories was better than working in the domestic service business. The factory business allowed the women to socialize more and had fewer hours than the domestic service.
 
Prostitution

In 1858, there were about 7,194 prostitutes in London. The Victorian era was infamous for its prostitution. This may be due to the fact that some people believed that venereal diseases could be cured by sexual intercourse with children. This is why most prostitutes during this time were no other than children. A girl in the lower class, from ages 12 to 18, was paid 20 pounds; a girl in the middle class, of the same ages, was paid 100 pounds; and a girl of the upper class, 12 years old, was paid 400 pounds per job. This was way more money compared to a skilled worker of a normal job who only made about 62 pounds a year. Since prostitutes made a large sum of money, it was the number one reason that women became prostitutes. Another reason women went into prostitution was because other jobs for women were limited and didn't make nearly as much money. Prostitutes were more socially liberated than women in other classes. Prostitutes could also gather in pubs, meanwhile respected women could not.Prostitution was not just good and lucrative, it was also very problematic. Although there were a number of prostitutes, there was still not enough to meet the demands. As a result, pimps, men who managed prostitutes, would go out and kidnap little girls to bring them into prostitution. Finally, there was the larger problem of venereal diseases.A large majority of prostitutes had syphilis before they reached the age of 18. Soldiers and sailors in the army and navy were starting to get these diseases from the prostitutes which led to the Contagious Diseases Act. This law states as followed: "Should a member of a special force or a registered doctor believe that a woman was a common prostitute (a term left undefined), then he might lay such information before a Justice of the Peace who was then to summon the woman to a certified hospital established under the act for medical examination. Should she refuse, then the magistrate could order her to be taken to the hospital and there forcibly examined and if found, in either case, to be suffering from venereal disease, then she could be detained in a hospital for a period of up to three months. Resistance to examination or refusal to obey the hospital rules could be visited with one month’s imprisonment for the first offense and two months for any subsequent offense. They might, however, submit voluntarily to examination without a magistrate’s order, but if infected became liable for detention" After this Act was enforced, women of this time formed the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act. They tried to get the Contagious Diseases Acts repealed. Finally in 1886, these acts were repealed and were replaced with a new legislation. This legislation entitled the Criminal Law Amendment Act. These acts gave more protection to children from becoming prostitutes, made homosexuality a crime, and made the basis for prostitution to eventually become illegal.

Women Pregnancies

For women, child birth was their service to their husbands. Many wealthy families wanted children for heirs. These well to do couples would most likely keep reproducing until they had a male child. Also, the father would want a male child to give his land and money to. Many poor families wanted children for workers. These children could help work on the farm, family stores, or in the domestic service. Even though children were good assistants, there was a downside. Woman pregnancy was very dangerous during the Victorian era. It was very common for women to pass away during childbearing. Another frightening asset was having a premature baby. The risk of death was more concerning to the lower class women. These women had poor diets that didn't have enough nutrition for a pregnant dame. On the other hand, for the wealthy it was a different situation. They had a more balanced diets, and this produced more healthy babies. Although rich women could afford more wine/beer, which they drank like water, was very dangerous for their infants. Women had to go through many lonely weeks, even months; incase of premature births, which was often,women had to go into confinement. Also having children gave women their rights. When a girl gave birth to their child they finally became a woman.
Women's Rights

In the early 1840's, women had very few rights. During this time period, women had to get an Act of Parliament* to get a divorce. But in 1857, the Matrimonial Causes Act allowed women to obtain a divorce without the Act of Parliament. This Act also allowed for women to keep the money that they earned from their job instead of having to give it to their former husband. When a married couple got divorced, the women were allowed to have custody of their children if she had the proper accommodations. The act that allowed this was the Custody of Infants Act, which was passed in 1839. From 1840 to 1873, if a girl was finished with her studies and wanted to become further educated, she was not allowed to go to college. In 1874, the London School of Medicine for women was created. This allowed women, who wanted to further their studies in medicine, become doctors. Even though the London School of Medicine was a step up for women education, it wasn't until 1878 that they were allowed to go to a normal university. Before this, they were segregated from the males in education. The London University was the first to offer an equal education as men. This helped make women more successful. Women were not granted the right to vote for Parliament. They wanted a say in their government. Sometimes, this law of women not being able to vote, would upset them and they would strike. This obviously didn't do much because all throughout the Victorian Era this law was not changed. The law for women to finally vote was passed in 1928.

The Victorian Era, which took place between the years 1837 and 1901, was filled with many wonders. One of these wonders was the women of its time. To sum it up, almost all women worked as housewives with the acceptation of domestic help and servants. Rarely there were womenwho did not stay at home, but traveled. Their individual days varied according to their role in society, such as upper, middle, and lower class. Some problems among women of that time regarded pregnancy and prostitution. During that time, although these women were strong, their legal rights were limited. Victorian Era women led very different lives than we do today.

Work Cited Page

Abrams, Lynn. "Woman's mission." Ideals of Womenhood in Victorian Brittan. 9 August 2001. BBC. 22 February 2008.

Shumpus, Alexis. "Women and Travel." Women's Issues Then and Now. 18 May 2002. Rhetoric of Anglo-American Feminism. 28 February 2008.

Soulbur. "Prostitution in the Victorian Era(1830 - 1901) ." Prostitution in the Victorian Era. 13 November 2001. Everything2. 2 March 2008.

Thomas, Weston Pauline. "Social Differences Between Classes of Women."A Woman's Place in 19th Century Victorian History." FashionEra.com. 22 February 2008.

(Unknown author)."To the Life of the Victorian Woman." Victoria's Past. 3 January 2005. Victoria's Past. 28 February 2008.

(Unknown author) "Women of Victorian English." Women of Victorian England. Tripod. 2 March 2008.

Zablocki, Christine. "History of Prostitution in the Victorian Period." History of Prostitution in the Victorian Period. 25 February 2008.

 
 

 
 

Victorian Women: the gender of oppression

    The most common way to characterize a society at a given time is to divide it into social classes and evaluate the differences between each group. However, the period known as the Victorian era in England, from 1837 to 1901, witnessed such polarized gender roles that it can also be analyzed according to the different functions assigned to men and women, more commonly known as the ideology of separate spheres. The separate spheres framework holds that “men possessed the capacity for reason, action, aggression, independence, and self-interest [thus belonging to the public sphere]. Women inhabited a separate, private sphere, one suitable for the so called inherent qualities of femininity: emotion, passivity, submission, dependence, and selflessness, all derived, it was claimed insistently, form women’s sexual and reproductive organization”  (Kent 30). Following such principles allowed men, allegedly controlled by their mind or intellectual strength, to dominate society, to be the governing sex, given that they were viewed as rational, brave, and independent. Women, on the other hand, were dominated by their sexuality, and were expected to fall silently into the social mold crafted by men, since they were regarded as irrational, sensitive, and dutiful. As Susan Kent observes: “Women were so exclusively identified by their sexual functions that nineteenth-century society came to regard them as ‘the Sex’” (32). This essay will examine the Victorian social institutions of marriage, motherhood, law, prostitution, and conventional sexual values, from a bourgeois woman’s point of view, all of which played roles in hindering women in day-to-day life, and furthered the notion of women as beings governed solely by their reproductive systems. 
 
            In this period, marriage was possibly one of the most significant points in a woman’s life. The majority of women did not have the option not to marry: it was simply a necessity for survival. Because society prevented women from making their own living, there was an inescapable dependence upon men’s income: “Barred by law and custom from entering trades and professions by which they could support themselves, and restricted in the possession of property, woman had only one means of livelihood, that of marriage” (Kent 86). Therefore, no matter what the women desired, most were predestined to become wives due to their economic reliance on men. Secondly, to be even considered as a potential wife, women had to be not only virgins, but were expected to remain innocent and “free from any thought of love or sexuality” until after they had received a proposal (Kane 97). This requirement of chastity and absolute purity was not expected of men, as the potential husband had the freedom to participate in premarital and extramarital sexual relationships. Such a biased idea was one of many double standards in Victorian society, which demanded unquestionable compliance from women and none from men, since the women were thought to be controlled by their sexuality and were thus in need of regulation. 
 
            After a woman married, her rights, her property, and even her identity almost ceased to exist. By law she was under the complete and total supervision of her husband: thus through marriage, husband and wife became one person; whatever view he presented was the unquestionable truth (Perkin 73). Not only did the husband have almost complete control over his wife’s body, since beatings and marital rape were legal, their children also belonged to him, as did any property and money that the wife brought into the house. Indeed it is understandable to see why many women saw marriage as falling little short of slavery. Victorian society viewed marriage as women’s natural and best position in life, and men agreed, seeing marriage as an expected duty of women. One Victorian male contemporary writing in a letter to a friend described the perfect wife as nothing more than an extension of his household surroundings: “of course at a certain age, when you have a house and so on, you get a wife as part of its furniture” (Kent 91). In reality women held an important position as wives since they took care of the household, any servants, helped with their husband’s work, and managed the finances, however from the male’s point of view, women were nothing more than overly emotional and mindless creatures ruled by their sexuality, or simply “the Sex” (Vickery 389). 
 
            Motherhood, unfortunately, in reality was not any more respected than marriage. Formally it was a sacred and honored position, as a mother was viewed as “an angel in the house,” and motherhood was “the crowning achievement of a woman’s life” (Kent 33). Such was the overall view. However, as with marriage, there were unjust requirements and unfair expectations. Firstly, motherhood was almost always separated from anything sexual. Sex for any other reason than creating children was viewed as dirty and scandalous, quite separate from the revered sexless image of motherhood. Purity was an expectation and a necessity in order for motherhood to be truly appreciated: “Victorians considered purity a crucial component in ideal maternity. Although mothers were necessarily women of some sexual experience, they were nonetheless often canonized as essentially virginal” (Holmes and Nelson 2). This meant that mothers also had to be religious, since religion supported the view of women as free of sexual passion and gratification. Such beliefs were required in order to properly bring up children, because “a mother who lacked religious faith could not instill sexual propriety in her daughter, and thus was unfit to be a mother at all” (Holmes and Nelson 21). Furthermore, women’s compliance with the accepted social maternal values (being pure, religious) was more important than their roles as mothers. For example, in 1878, Annie Besant was denied the custody of her daughter because she had written in a magazine promoting birth control, sex for pleasure, and was an admitted atheist. As Holmes and Nelson relate:
 

Mothers were valued socially only if they were ‘good’  mothers, good according to rigid moral standards of propriety not only in behavior but also in opinion…When Besant was judged ‘not a fit and proper person’ to have a custody ofher child, not because of her mothering but because of her opinions, the courts and the public ruled unequivocally that social conformity was more important than maternal love (13). 

 

Thus mothers were viewed by men as angelic only if they seemed to eschew sex, were meek, submissive, and conforming. Mothers, men kept in mind, were also women controlled by their emotions, and were socially accepted as long as they stayed in their sphere of submissiveness and passivity. One early twentieth century Protestant reformer wrote “If a woman becomes weary of bearing children, that matters not: let her only die from bearing, she is there to do it” (Kent 95). Motherhood, socially restricted and defined by women’s sexual abilities, was, like marriage, an institution to limit women’s roles in society. In order to be as sexually free as men in the Victorian era, women had to avoid motherhood and stand against society’s conventions and the rules set up by men. 
 
            Therefore it seemed that despite the superficially elevated positions of wives and mothers, women were alone in a world ruled by men. This could not have been more clearly evident than when women came into contact with law: “Justice was administered according to a male view of her rights, and of how she ought to behave. It seemed appropriate that justice was portrayed as a blindfolded woman, since her scales were so tilted in favor of men” (Perkin 113). Laws designed to benefit men over women were hard to overlook. Besides the legality of marital rape and wife-battery, the husband also had complete say in sexual intercourse. Refusal of sex was grounds for annulment of marriage (Perkin 64). 
 
        The issue of adultery was also skewed to favor men. “While a wife’s adultery was sufficient cause to end a marriage, a woman could divorce her husband only if his adultery had been compounded by another matrimonial offense, such as cruelty or desertion,” wrote Holmes and Nelson (40). The reasoning was that wives and mothers served as moral guides to children, so adultery committed by a woman was considered perverted and unnatural. Also, it called the paternity of the children (the heirs to the husband’s property) into question. And thus men believed that unless there was an explicit rule against it, men were free to treat women any way they wanted without any shame. Men justified their actions with their supremacy and expected women to tolerate the abuse without demur. 
 
        The extreme polarization of roles based on gender resulted in a world ruled solely by male discretion, which almost never took into consideration the women’s viewpoint. Emmeline Lawrence of WSPU, an organization that fought for women’s emancipation, challenged the patriarchal power of society: “The concentration of power in the hands of men, the containing of women to the private sphere…had resulted in a society in which ‘there is nothing that expresses the woman’s point of view. There is nothing that tallies with the woman’s soul…everything is arranged upon a plan different from their own’” (Kent 149). Kent goes on to argue that not only had men failed to protect the interests of women; they were almost incapable of it. Their lives, their laws, and the administration of justice reflected men’s deep-seated desire to debase women sexually (149). If women were looked upon as ruled by their sexual reproductive systems in the institutions of marriage and motherhood, they could not expect any more protection or understanding from the legal system. 
 
            Prostitution, legal during the Victorian era, seemed to embody the second of the two categories of women present in Victorian society: the first was the pure wife and mother, “the angel in the house”; the other was the depraved and sexually-crazed prostitute. However because wives and mothers were not truly respected, my belief is that prostitution reflected what men really considered all women to be: whores for the gratification of their sexual desires. And indeed in Victorian England a large number of women were prostitutes: “In a society that forced women into a position of economic dependence upon men, only an accident of birth prevented women of the middle classes from resorting to prostitution to support themselves and their children” (Kent 68). Men said they were revolted by prostitutes, that they were the “fallen women” who deserved the shame and disrespect, yet made no effort to make prostitution illegal since they believed prostitutes provided a basic service of satisfying men’s uncontrollable needs. Ironically, in a society that was not open to women working outside the home, prostitution seemed to be the only profession protected by law. Many men regarded prostitutes as “the necessary evil to protect the pure, who otherwise might unwittingly provoke the male to rape them” (Kent 62). 
 
 Although I’m not sure Victorian men really considered themselves to be so bestial and animalistic “theorists constructed a single sexuality for men that acknowledged the urgency of male drives and the necessity of relieving them” (Kent 62). The whole field of prostitution seemed to be built upon the belief that men had to express their sexual energy, women being the means of men’s expression. The Contagious Disease Acts of the 1860’s tried to limit the spread of venereal diseases and prostitution, by requiring the examination of the genitals of women who were suspected of being prostitutes: “Treatment was compulsory only for women…a military doctor said periodic examination of the soldiers ‘would tend to destroy the men’s self-respect’” (Perkin 231).  Several years later, feminists fought and “opposed the acts not simply because they singled out one sex for punishment and obloquy, but because they sanctioned the notion of woman as the acceptable object for male use and abuse” (Kent 66). Prostitution thus was a direct identification of women as “the Sex.” 
 
            Men’s and society’s consistent definition of women’s roles according to their separate spheres and the reproductive system can also be seen through what today we would consider the ‘weird’ sexual values of Victorians. To begin with, sex as a subject was not at all discussed. Girls could grow up into women and still not know where children came from: “Women’s bodies, hidden in long, voluminous clothes, were almost as much of a mystery to themselves as to men…‘Nice ladies no more thought of showing their legs than did nice chairs’” (Perkin 51). Sexuality and anything in relation to it contradicted the accepted notions of purity and was strictly looked down upon. Masturbation was so demonized that it was considered a mental disorder. Doctors maintained that masturbation caused “‘certain forms of insanity, epilepsy and hysteria in females” (Perkin 22). Victorians, it seemed, simply could not understand why anyone would voluntarily choose to participate in such revolting and degrading activities. 
 
One solution was the mutilation of female genitals: “Clitoridectomy was performed to cure dysuria, amenorrhea, sterility, epilepsy, masturbation, ‘hysterical mania,’ and various manifestations of insanity. The source of these diseases was thought to be sexual arousal; the termination of sexual arousal through clitoridectomy cured the disease” (Kent 47). Men so deeply believed the idea of women as beings who were controlled by their sexuality that some even thought the reason women were so unhappy with their positions as females was because they lacked a male’s sexual organs. The psychologist Sigmund Freud explained this argument: “The personality development of the female centered upon her discovery in early childhood that she lacked a penis; penis envy created in the female child a lifelong dissatisfaction with her identity as a woman” (Kent 224). The extent to which men stressed view of women as “the Sex” was almost limitless. The best view, perhaps, stated clearly to define women’s social niche, was written by an eminent British psychiatrist Henry Maudsley:

 

Reproductive process demanded all the energy a woman could muster; to spend it in another direction would inexorably undermine the very function that gave woman her only raison d’être [reason for being]. If women foolishly attempted to undertake study, he concluded, they risked ruining forever their childbearing capacities (Perkin 51).  
   

In the end, there was simply no way to escape from men’s never-ending subordination of women due to female’s sexuality.            

It was not until after 1850’s that the effective women’s organizations arose and finally began to stand up against male oppression. From an early age girls were taught they were useless; supported by the ideology of separate spheres, women lived their lives in conditions that some feminists saw as being close to slavery. Feminists and suffragists viewed their campaign as the best way to end the sexual discrimination against women brought on by the separate spheres – “an ideology that finally reduced women’s identity to a sexual one, encouraged the view of women as sexual objects, and perpetuated women’s powerlessness in both spheres” (Kent 5). If women were going to fight against the oppression forced on them by men, they had to get to the root of the problem, and the idea of the separate spheres was the basis. One Victorian woman referring to her childhood recalled: “‘We just got instilled in us the feeling of being second best, if not coming up to scratch. We were girls, you see, and what use were girls anyway?’” (Perkin 6) The women of the early twentieth century realized their freedom lay in the dissolution of the ideology of separate spheres, through emending men’s views, and overhauling the legal system. By discarding the underlying beliefs that upheld the unjust aspects of Victorian society, women understood that their position in society would increasingly improve, especially in the institutions of marriage, motherhood, and law: “A truer, more moral relationship between the sexes, a sex peace, if you will, depended upon the reconstruction of gender and sexual identity…It was a fundamental step, they realized, if the laws and customs that subjected women to men were to be overturned” (Kent 134-9). Many of the freedoms we take for granted today indeed sprang from the seeds of Victorian women’s repression, and women’s continuous determination to fight patriarchal society.     
 
Website:
http://webpage.pace.edu/nreagin/tempmotherhood/fall2003/3/HisPage.html