Feminism during the Victorian Era

1 Feminism during the Victorian Era
Makenna Brandt
English II
May 13, 2014
2 The genesis of the concept of feminism arguably arose during the Industrial
Revolution, specifically during the Victorian era: a time when women’s roles dramatically
shifted and evolved to mold the perceptions and ideals of society. As women were pushed
aside in order to make room for “the increasing ideal of male success and
industrialization”1 groups of well-educated women began to speak against the political
and economic inferiority of women in society. These women raised their voices to be
heard through a number of mediums, including writing, such as that seen in the
Victorian novel. To what extent did women’s roles change during the Industrial
Revolution, and how did these changes stimulate early ideas of feminism in society and
literature? The Industrial Revolution brought about a shift for women from the labor
force to the domestic sphere. This shift stimulated women to advocate for their
individuality and emancipation politically, socially, and economically. Victorian literature
provided a significant opportunity for women to voice their ideas and protests.
Throughout the Industrial Revolution, especially during the Victorian era,
women’s concentration shifted from the work force to the domestic sphere. The division
between men and women grew, based on the separation of women into a domain that
could easily be controlled: the home.2 Women were perceived as idle and not suited to
the demanding requirements of the workforce, but once they were pushed out, they
were reprimanded for their lack of contribution and productivity. This sense of idleness
Tuchman, Gaye, and Nina Fortin. “Edging Women Out: Some Suggestions about the Structure of Opportunities and the Victorian Novel.” Signs 6, no.2 (Winter, 1980): 308325. 2
Rendall, Jane. The Origins of Modern Feminism: Women in Britain, France and the United States, 17801860. New York: Schocken Books, 1984, 3. 1
3 established a societal association of women with poverty, although society failed to
understand that it was the public’s actions which forced women out of the labor force in
the first place.3 Men were instructed to earn money for the family, while women stayed
home in order to complete domestic tasks. Victorian gender ideology claimed that
women were simply meant to be wives and mothers, nothing more, which was justified
by the idea of God’s will, something that, during the Victorian era, was absolute.4
According to the law, women had as much worth as a domestic slave; they were
considered property of any prominent male figures in their lives, such as husbands,
brothers, or fathers. Furthermore, they had no legal custody of their children, property,
or finances.5 In an economic view, there was a “separation of public and domestic spheres,
which effectively assigned women to nonproductive roles… a cornerstone of liberal
economic theory of the nineteenth century.”6 Since women were occupied with caring for
young children, they did not have the ability to earn an income, and if they did, the
income was too small to support a family alone. In total, women’s roles no longer
constituted income or wage, but rather encompassed domestic tasks, which confined
women to the home.
For the women who managed to maintain their position in the labor force, their
roles were significantly limited. Perceived as not suited to the demanding requirements
of the workforce, women possessed minimal positions, and their wages even more so.7
3
Valenze, Deborah. The First Industrial Woman. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1995, 130. 4
YILDIRIM, Askin Haluk.”The Woman Question and the Victorian Literature on Gender.”Ekev Academic Review 16, no. 52.(June 2012). 5
Ibid. 6
Valenze, Deborah. The First Industrial Woman, 130. 7
Ibid, 115. 4 Wages were set differently for men and women such that women’s wages were
established as low as the “labor pool” would allow.8 Similarly, employer records
disfigured the numbers of female workers and their productivity in order to omit certain
payment requirements. These imbalanced positions in the workforce hinged on the fact
that an industrious nation now discarded the idea of female productivity.9 Occupational
fields that were not socially valued heavily consisted of minorities such as women.
Unfortunately, women tended to make the prestige of the field grow, in which case men
would edge these minorities out.10 On the other hand, legislation restricted women from
many seemingly “low-brow” jobs disguised by concern for their physical and moral
well-being.11 Therefore, only a minute fraction of the total labor force was actually
accessible to women, confined by discriminatory legislation and male superiority.
The overarching perception of women in society was altered during the Victorian
era. Education was used solely as a tool to prepare young girls for maternal roles, or, at
best, to be future governesses.12 Women were excluded from the independent
intellectual evolution.13 The position of women in society was largely unimportant in
comparison to the behavior and appearance of women, such that “the question of what to
do about laboring women, excluded from... productive activities and repeatedly thrust
into poverty , became subsumed under the larger project of creating a civilized female
8
9
Ibid, 115. Ibid, 138. Tuchman, Gaye, and Nina Fortin. “Edging Women Out.” Roberts, M.J.D. “Feminism and the State in late Victorian England.” The Historical Journal 38, no. 1 (March 1995): 85100. 12
Rendall, Jane. The Origins of Modern Feminism, 114. 13
Dutta, Sangeeta. “Charlotte Bronte and the Woman Question.” Economic and Political Weekly 26, no. 40 (October 5, 1991). 10
11
5 sex.”14 A “civilized sex,” unfortunately, created an emphasis on refinement, restraint, and
sexual purity. Furthermore, women were at the complete mercy of male figures, who
established the Victorian ideology that women were intellectually inferior to men,
creating an atmosphere which emphasized the functions of women as they benefited
men. In the eyes of the state, women only reached adulthood when their female functions
could be viewed as “useful to the other sex.”15 This is evident in acts such as The Infant
Life Protection Bill, which placed sole responsibility on women for circumstances that
weren’t always in their control, such as abandonment by the father of a child. The
perception of women during the Victorian era was mutilated by the importance of social
reclusiveness and fragility, sustained by the stratification of the male and female sexes.
The dramatically altering position of women in industrialized society fueled early
feminist movements. Feminist thinking increased during the early 19th century when
women began to take political interest and the public status of women as citizens and
individuals started to become a permanent fixture in the Victorian social agenda.16
Identified as “The Woman Question,” a debate arose about the role of women in Victorian
society. The idea of the female gender completely without the vote, and subjected to
male law-making and enforcing acted as fuel for feminists. Early feminists discussed the
equality of women in regards to property rights, higher education, and the elusive vote.
17
14
Historians will use the term “modern feminism” in order to describe how women came
Valenze, Deborah. The First Industrial Woman, 140. Roberts, M.J.D. “Feminism and the State.” 16
Ibid. 17
Ibid. 15
6 together so that they could assert their “common interest in women.” Also, besides the
already startling anomaly of the feminist movement that formed during the male
dominated Industrial Revolution, what seemed to distinguish “the feminist view was that
the task should be undertaken by women freely, rationally, with independence, as their
contribution to the new and transformed world of the republic.”18
Feminists during the Victorian era advocated the social, economic, and political
promotion of women. Initially a small group of educated women were advocating the
natural rights of women in regards to political and personal life, but a series of major
changes induced by the Industrial Revolution, women gained a louder, more resonating
voice. Feminists advocated an idea of gender-conscious individual liberty and the claim of
adult women as individual and civic beings. The ideology of feminism at the time
consisted of the highest form of citizenship as self-control at one’s own discretion,
something that women were consistently denied. On a more detailed level, feminists
were against child-prostitution which arose from the extremely low legal age of consent
for females and a trend of abduction.19 In regards to the domestic sphere, feminists
challenged ideals that belonged solely to male heads of households such as the concept of
a male “breadwinner.” Feminists wanted to widen the labor opportunities for women in
contrast to the poor labor conditions of females during the nineteenth century.20 The
summarizing “hallmarks of feminist theory and practice” during the Victorian era were
“the demand for female autonomy and the necessity for association.”21
18
Rendall, Jane. The Origins of Modern Feminism, 34. Roberts, M.J.D. “Feminism and the State.” 20
Rendall, Jane. The Origins of Modern Feminism, 323. 21
Ibid, 324. 19
7 The altercations of feminists stimulated an array of harsh and beneficial reactions.
Just as any new ideas that are introduced which contradict societal norms, feminists were
met with extreme aversion.22 They were often ridiculed for criticizing legislation and
ideals that benefited the male gender. The conflict between men and women “both in
domestic and political spheres was perceived as a threat by Victorian men whose
supremacy was challenged by women’s emancipation.”23 However, when the voices of
feminists were rarely heard, this was seen as a victory, no matter how miniscule the
changes that arose. Of course, these promotions did not amount to the total vision that
feminists had for the female gender during the Victorian era. Feminists had to continue
to strive for the equality they seeked and “if women were to survive the phase of
indifference or worse… they would have to shout louder and more often to be heard
while working to gain acceptance for their claims to political equality.”24
Literature during the Victorian era was used as a powerful tool to promote
feminist ideals. The best known feminist writers emerged during the 19th century,
aided by the fact that writing provided a beneficial opportunity to question women’s
rights such as divorce, politics, and property rights.25 In the mid-1800s, female novelists
were beginning to be accepted as a legitimate profession, thus the female literary
community encompassed the questioning of women’s roles and relationships in society
that had begun to arise. The novel was considered one of the best suited forms of
22
Ibid, 323. YILDIRIM, Askin Haluk.”The Woman Question.” 24
Roberts, M.J.D. “Feminism and the State.” 25
Dutta, Sangeeta. “Charlotte Bronte.” 23
8 expression during the Victorian era. Writers utilized the novel in order to “demonstrate
woman’s proper sphere and remake woman’s image in the face of dominant ideology.”26
Writers insisted that women had the right to define their own life in their own terms,
which included their occupation in society. Literature in general was used as a powerful
tool to publicize social issues and was viewed as one of the most important factors in
expression of gender matters during the Victorian era.27
The creation of women's magazines in the 1800s also aided in the battle for
women’s rights. As young women began to refuse, or at least post-pone marriage
proposals, Victorian press had to provide for a growing number of female readers who
were interested in work and education more so than family and home matters.28 These
magazines, sometimes edited by women, helped to draw debates about working women
away from hostility and towards admiration of new opportunities available to them. An
example of a women's magazine from the time period is Young Woman, which addressed
independent women with careers as well as traditional women of the domestic sphere so
as to outlive purely radical magazines such as Woman’s Signal. Young Woman
highlighted women’s achievements in higher education, politics, and other professions,
as well as defended the “modern woman.” The “modern woman” was viewed as a female
that denied the traditional roles of women and pursued a career and an independent life
over marriage and family.29 Some of these magazines, which rapidly gained popularity
among female readers, advocated the lifestyle of a single woman by detailing not only the
26
Ibid. YILDIRIM, Askin Haluk.”The Woman Question.” 28
Liggins, Emma. “‘The Life of a Bachelor Girl in the Big City’:Selling the Single Lifestyle to Readers of Woman and the Young Woman in the 1890s.” Victorian Periodicals Review, no. 3 (Fall 2007): 216238. 29
Ibid. 27
9 benefits, but also the practical difficulties in order to appropriately inform women
considering such a conduct of living. In their own form of defiance against traditional
female roles, women’s magazines helped enumerate a number of careers available to
women and explained practical methods for infiltrating them.
Prominent literary figures utilized their writing to advocate gender equality and
the liberation of women in society. A very well known example of a feminist writer is
Charlotte Bronte. In Bronte’s work, women are viewed “as agents of change and their
persisting power.”30 Bronte personifies social, moral, and psychological principles
through independent female protagonists. The main focus of many of her novels is “the
vision of an oppressed… female figure trapped in the structures of a patriarchal society.”
31
Jane Eyre serves as a prime example of Bronte’s feminist writing. The voice of the
novel acts as a strong voice against the Victorian ideal of denial against women’s passion
and sexuality. Characters throughout Jane Eyre represent oppressive factors against
women in Victorian society, such as Brocklehurst symbolizing female inferiority as God’s
will.32 Additionally, when Jane decides her own destiny, this presents a hope for
Victorian women who also wished to abandon their traditional roles. Another model of a
feminist writer is Thomas Hardy and his novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Tess’ ideas about
marriage contradict those of the Victorian ideology. Aspects of the novel represent the
moral blindness of social values such as hypocrisy of the gender traditions, injustice of
social law, and the sustenance of male dominance33 . The female protagonist is “arrested
30
Dutta, Sangeeta. “Charlotte Bronte.” Ibid. 32
YILDIRIM, Askin Haluk.”The Woman Question.” 33
Ibid. 31
10 and executed by the system whose laws are no less discriminatory than its individuals.”
34
Furthermore, poets such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Florence Nightingale
challenged gender ranks and the placement of women on a religious pedestal which
disguises their oppression by the will of God. These authors’ arguments promoted
awareness of the Victorian gender conflict and “contributed to the status of women… by
bringing up the social ills… through their works and iconic characters, most of which
have become the symbols of women’s struggles for equal rights and opportunities.”35
Although the social and political lives of women dramatically altered during the
Industrial Revolution, the female gender greatly adapted to these changes and
complemented the oppression with an uprising of feminist thought. The shift from the
work force to the domestic sphere was met with defiance, exhibited in women’s
magazines and the Victorian novel. Writing was established as an immensely beneficial
tool utilized by feminist writers such as Bronte, Hardy, and Browning who wished to
promote the social and political status of women. Negative perceptions of females were
challenged and protested against by feminist language. Women, although submitted to a
male dominant society and forced to adopt social values that demeaned and oppressed
the female gender, rose up in defiance and consolidated intellectual thinking to form
history’s initial glimpse of feminist activity.
34
35
Ibid. Ibid. 11 Bibliography
Dutta, Sangeeta. “Charlotte Bronte and the Woman Question.” Economic and Political
Weekly 26, no. 40 (October 5, 1991).
Liggins, Emma. “‘The Life of a Bachelor Girl in the Big City’:Selling the Single Lifestyle to
Readers of Woman and the Young Woman in the 1890s.” Victorian Periodicals Review, no.
3 (Fall 2007): 216-238.
Rendall, Jane. The Origins of Modern Feminism: Women in Britain, France and the United
States, 1780-1860. New York: Schocken Books, 1984.
Roberts, M.J.D. “Feminism and the State in late Victorian England.” The Historical Journal
38, no. 1 (March 1995): 85-100.
Tuchman, Gaye, and Nina Fortin. “Edging Women Out: Some Suggestions about the
Structure of Opportunities and the Victorian Novel.” Signs 6, no.2 (Winter, 1980):
308-325.
Valenze, Deborah. The First Industrial Woman. New York, New York: Oxford University
Press, Inc., 1995.
YILDIRIM, Askin Haluk.”The Woman Question and the Victorian Literature on
Gender.”Ekev Academic Review 16, no. 52. (June 2012).

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