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Milan Coleman April 11, 2001
Much of the 19th century was marked by a period known as Victorianism, or the length of Queen Victoria’s reign of Great Britain, from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian Era seemed to have been defined by many cruel and prudish ideas that would be frowned upon today, particularly the negative opinions towards people of different social, economic, and racial backgrounds. Some of the most infamous ideas of the time, however, were those directed specifically towards women.
During this era, women were generally classified into very specific social groups: the upper class, the middle class, the lower middle class, the lower class, and the underclass. The upper class in Britain included royalty and gentry, along with families of new capitalists and millowners. The middle class mostly included professionals, and the lower middle class consisted of governesses or teachers. The lower class included seamstresses, washerwomen, farm, factory, and mine workers, and domestic servants. Those of the underclass were generally prostitutes or unemployed. Women of the upper class, middle class, working class, and lower class were more prevalent in America. There were also slaves in the United States until the 1860’s and immigrants, who were in classes of their own.
Many women of the upper class in America appeared to have led very stable, secure lives. They set the standards in fashion, education, daily life, and customs for other women. Working class women were those who worked outside of the home, while middle class women were the wives of men who held occupations in law, medicine, or other professions. Slaves and newly freed African-American women held all the responsibilities of working class women and were forced to endure social and racial prejudice.
Women of the higher classes were not known as simply “women,” but ladies. They had better chances of achieving the Victorian ideal, which meant that they were weak, angelic, sickly, virginal, and selfless. It was easier for them to possess these characteristics because they did not have to work, and had more time to perfect their images. They drank vinegar to increase their pallor, or paleness, and practiced fainting to make themselves appear fragile. Victorians felt that a lady should be quiet in her manners, natural and modest in her language, and careful to hurt no one’s feelings. From infancy, Victorian young ladies were taught how to acheive this ideal and behaved under the strictest etiquette.
The daily life of the average wealthy Victorian woman was generally unhurried and pleasant. They would stay at home during the morning, and if they were fortunate enough, a cook would prepare breakfast. The afternoon was a popular time for upper-class ladies to visit neighbors and friends for afternoon tea, attend charitable and civic duties, or seek “self-improvement.” Patronizing the arts, attending lectures, and participating in the newly popular women’s clubs took up their spare time. Temperance societies, charity bazaars, and organizations promoting relief for the homeless were also popular activities among upper-class women. Supper was generally the most elegant meal of the day; women would wear change out of their day clothes and wear a dinner gown, which generally had a much lower neckline than a regular daydress.
Fashion was highly important to ladies of the upper-class, most likely because dress could have represented their most obvious role in society. Fashion changed many times during the 19th century, and throughout the entire time of Victoria’s reign the upper-class women set the trends. Dresses with high-waists from the Regency era called empire waists were dwindling into the natural waist by the 1830s, and crinolines, stiff petticoats that flared out skirts, became popular in the 1840’s and ’50s. After the Civil War, however, both hoop skirts and crinolines were done away with and the bustle was introduced. Bustles were made of wire and created the appearance of a fuller backside and larger hips. Bustles remained in style for the latter part of the 19th century, and finally, a simple, straight silhouette came into the limelight around the turn-of-the-century which emphasized a very small waist, but had a more natural shape than the previous fashions.
Practically the same underpinnings remained throughout the Victorian Era. The corset was the most notorious of all underpinnings, and most definitely the most uncomfortable. Women who wore corsets often suffered from some sort of disorder-- headache, stomach trouble, or shooting pains. There are many reports that some women could not stand without being laced in a corset. The main purpose of the corset was to make the waist look as small as possible, which was ideally 18 inches or less, and to enhance the hips and bust. Corsets were generally fortified with steel, wood, or whalebone, and by the 1860’s were covered with silk and lace to make them more attractive. By the 1880’s they were made often of satin and brocade, in a variety of colors, and adorned with silk rosettes and elaborate lace. Underneath the corset would be a chemise, an unshaped undergarment that reached just below the knees, which, for wealthy women, would often be accented with French lace. Over the corset was a corset cover, then an underpetticoat, a hoop skirt, and an overpetticoat, which was usually quite elaborately embroidered and longer than the final skirt so that it could be seen. After the era of the hoopskirt, only an updated version of the overpetticoat remained.
Different types of dresses were worn over the underpinnings, depending on the season and the occasion. Upper-class women wore house dresses indoors, daydresses out in public, special reception dresses for visiting, dinner gowns, and ball gowns. House dresses could be made of gingham or muslin, a kind of cotton, and were typically canvas-lined for strength and warmth. House dresses were typically worn hoopless while doing chores or working out in the garden. Daydresses had full sleeves with detachable undersleeves, and the collar was always attached with a jeweled clasp at the neck called a brooch. The newly invented aniline dyes made dresses come in brilliant colors such as fuchsia and violet. Reception gowns were generally very fashionable and were typically made in darker colors so that dirt and dust from the roads would not appear when ladies reached their destinations. Dinner gowns were elegant and made of finer fabrics such as silk and satin and complemented with many accessories such as fans and stoles. Ball gowns were the most elegant dresses; they could be made of expensive velvet, silk, taffeta, or satin. Brussels lace was a popular addition to any gown because it was costly and intricate. Oftentimes, very wealthy women would wear dresses that had elaborately beaded or jeweled trains. High society ladies, such as Mrs. George Jay Gould, could be seen at times wearing jewelry worth thousands of dollars. In one of Mrs. Gould’s pictures, she is seated and looking into a mirror, wearing a $500,000 pearl necklace and a lengthy, breaktaking jeweled train. Most of the inner circle did not visit her home, however, because she had previously been an actress and her father-in-law was a new-money capitalist. Mrs. William Astor, who held a famous ball every year just before Lent, greeted her guests as she stood underneath her own portrait, covered from throat to waist in diamonds.
With such extravagance, one would assume that such elegantly dressed women would have a rather keen understanding of the world and would be well-traveled. Travel was relatively common for those of the upper-class, and many had a home in town and a home for the summer. Those with a great deal of money would occasionally visit Europe. However, upper-class women in general were not nearly as educated as the men of their time, and did not really understand other cultures and ideas. Some young ladies received private tutoring, but as they got older, the emphasis shifted from education to being a respectable lady of society.
Marriage was very important to those of the upper-class, as it was to nearly all Victorian women. Marriage was more of a social and political arrangement than a romantic one. Those of the upper-class had ornate weddings and grand galas. After marriage, an upper-class couple would probably go on a wedding tour, and return home to start a family. Children were usually very important to wealthy Victorian women because they were their main focus, and most activities revolved around the children.
The Victorian working class woman had some of these same basic lifestyle elements as an upper-class woman, but, in general, her life was simpler and more difficult. While a wealthy woman spent her mornings and afternoons at leisure, a working class woman was hard at work. The typical middle- and working-class households would wake before daylight, and mothers, daughters, and in rare instances, servants, would hurriedly dress before starting breakfast. After breakfast, many of these women went to work to help support their families. Lunchtime, known as dinner then, was generally the principal meal of the day for rural working-class families, while supper was the main meal of the day for more urban families.
For these women, working outside of the home was perhaps their most influential aspect of society. A total of 2.8 million women over the age of ten were employed in 1851 (Burnett). At least 80% of Victorians were of the working class, and many women were forced to work because their husbands didn’t make enough money to support their families (Burnett). The Civil War opened up many challenging opportunities for women in vocations that before were only accessible to men. Women went into nursing, spying, and in some extremely uncommon cases, soldiering. At the time of the Civil War, working was almost a must for most women, and it was looked upon highly by society. After the war, many women stopped working and resumed their “household responsibilities,” and the idea of women working was thought of as unacceptable once again.
Although working was considered to be inappropriate for women after 1865, many continued to engage in daily labor. These women generally became teachers, milliners, seamstresses, washerwomen, framework knitters and, in some cases, factory workers. Most of them, however, were seamstresses. Only some women had the necessary education to be a teacher or governess, but nearly all women were well instructed in sewing. Sewing was looked down upon greatly; many people found the link between sewing trades and prostitution a natural one. Very desperate seamstresses were known to sell their bodies for extra income, and many madams, having to explain why so many young ladies frequently staying at their lodgings, listed their occupation as “dressmaker.” Newspapers began using “plain sewing” as a euphemism for prostitution.
Women who worked in offices were generally criticized as well. They faced stiff opposition, and often heard themselves being called “strumpets.” In an 1875 issue of Harper’s Bazar, an engraving depicts an office “taken over by ladies.” The scene is chaos, and the ladies are engaging in everything besides honest work.
In the 19th century, the required educational preparation for professional careers increased, which tended to prevent many young women who married early and had children from having respectable positions. Before the Civil War, education for women was very ineffective, but the second half of the century saw great improvement. Elementary level girls were being educated like the boys, and learned reading, writing, and arithmetic from readers such as The New England Primer or McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader. “Important subjects,” however, such as Latin, Greek, or higher mathematics were believed to overtax women, whose brains were “too-light and reasoning powers too defective” for such “masculine mysteries” (Jenson 107). Some popular books and magazines of the early to mid-19th century also believed that reading was also improper for young ladies. Said Advice to Young Ladies, published in 1848, “To indulge in novel-reading is a serious evil.”
While in school, some young women were introduced to athletics as well. Croquet became increasingly popular, as well as bicycling and tennis. It was not uncommon to see women wearing immense bustles and jumping rope. Bicycles were dangerous in the 1880’s, but gradually became safer towards the turn of the century.
After elementary and secondary school, most young girls did not continue with their education. Most colleges did not except females, with a few ladies’ colleges being an exception. President Eliot of Harvard, for example, thought that “women were physically too fragile to stand the pace of college” (Jenson 107). At the time Eliot made that remark, about 11,000 girls were graduating from women’s colleges each year, and most people thought of them as mannish, unmarriageable freaks (Jenson 107).
Marriage was the most common option after school; many women married before they were twenty. Courting was usually brief but extremely proper, and a young gentleman tried very earnestly to please the parents of the woman he was courting. “Arranged” marriages were not as common as they had been earlier in the century, but still somewhat popular among the wealthy. Women generally married men who were of the same class as themselves. Once a middle-class woman was married, she became dedicated to her husband and the household until she had children.
Children were almost a necessity and a requirement after a couple was married. Very large families were not peculiar in the centuries before birth control, with the Victorian Era being no exception. Because of the unfortunate high infant death rate, however, women could usually manage their children.
Death and illness played a big role in life as well in the Victorian Era. Tuberculosis, which was more commonly called consumption, was on the rise because of the growth of cities, and travelers or people living in large cities were dying by the thousands. However, tuberculosis was somewhat fancied because women who had the disease possessed some of the ideal Victorian characteristics. Women with the disease were generally very pale and weak, had bright eyes, and experienced sudden bursts of energy or creativity. In truth, tuberculosis was contagious and horrific, but many believed it was a romantic way to die. TB is very common in 19th century literature; in Louisa May Alcott’s famous Little Women, Beth dies of tuberculosis, and in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of the Island, Ruby Gillis dies of consumption and is described as having sparkling blue eyes and looking beautiful until the very end.
The lives of slaves were drastically different than those of upper- or working-class women. Female slaves were not even considered to be human by many Victorian people. Racism crushed their lives, their work made them weary, and they had to deal with mental abuse daily. They frequently served as concubines to their masters and their children could be sold off at auction at any time. As a result of sexual and mental abuse, female slaves generally experienced far greater turmoil than their male counterparts.
The daily life of a slave woman before the Civil War was very complex and difficult. There were two types of slaves that women could be: house slaves or field slaves. House slaves typically had easier work than field slaves because they could work indoors and did not have to work in the fields picking cotton. House slaves generally lived in the same home as their masters; either on the floor downstairs or, if they were a “personal servant,” on the floor in one of the bedrooms, generally of a child. They were on call at every moment, however, and had almost no personal life outside of the home. There was also a better chance of being seduced or raped by the master. A field slave had many more responsibilities, but was generally more sociable with other slaves. Well into the last days of slavery, slave women continued to spin thread, weave and dye cloth, sew clothes, prepare and preserve foods, make soap and candles, and grow food. After they spent a day doing these things or picking cotton, they would have to go home and take care of their own household with the little resources they were given. If they did not pick the required amount of cotton, they would have to face severe consequences. The only break they were given was on Sundays and holidays, which were few and far between.
After slavery, however, the daily life of black women changed tremendously. They had the time and freedom to properly look after their families and, if they chose, could become a part of the growing work force. Those who stayed in the South generally became involved in sharecropping alongside their husbands, but those who fled to the North usually had better paying jobs. Black women tended to be cooks, nurses, seamstresses, servants, or laundresses. The money that they earned assisted them in a better way of life, and things improved for many former slaves.
Black women could also have a more involved interest in the Victorian lifestyle after slavery. Many of them took great pride in their appearance and the way they were perceived, and black men were honored to be able to buy pretty dresses, feathery hats, colorful ribbons, and delicate parasols for their wives. They left their old slave clothes for the fields and went out in public dressed rather fashionably. This was a great change from the coarse gowns made of osnaburg, a cheap woven fabric that was prevalent in the 19th century, held up by a cord just above their hips, long-sleeved blouses pushed above the elbow, and kerchiefs worn during slavery.
Slavery did not legally allow for a slave to be educated, but on occasion, some were secretly taught by elder slaves or the wives or children of slaveowners. After slavery, however, blacks associated education with broader social and economic opportunities, and began building schools in Northern cities and in the South. Most black children were enthusiastic about acquiring an education and becoming literate, and black schools were generally more equally populated and freer than the white private boys’ and girls’ schools.
The family structure after slavery was much more natural as well. During slavery, mistresses and their daughters took an unsolicited interest in a slave woman’s love life. On occasion the master would do this as well. Masters often withheld their permission for certain slave marriages and arranged others. Marriages were simple ceremonies for slaves; they would typically follow the African tradition of jumping over a broom and then celebrating afterwards.
The primary goal of a slave master was for his slaves to have children, which would be prosperous for him. In the early/mid-19th century in areas of the Upper South, fertility levels among slave women reached human capacity. A woman who was fertile from 18 to 45, for example, might conceive 13 children and spend 10 years of her life pregnant and nearly the entire time nursing. Many women had their first child out of wedlock, which was acceptable to the slave community. On occasion, the children would be both black and white, which was very difficult for the mother and confusing for the child.
Marriage and motherhood became more pleasant, though, after slavery. Women had more options as to whom they could marry, and usually had more religious marriage ceremonies in churches. The birth rate was not as high and the children could be well cared-for because the mothers had a chance to look after them.
As the 20th century progressed, Victorian ideas and morals began to gradually disappear, and women began demanding their freedom and rights. Corsets were nothing more than a memory, class lines nearly vanished as people started to have more similar lifestyles, and new advances were made in medicine and technology. Some Victorian women possessed a strong awareness of women’s rights and began protesting in large cities all over the country. Because of their efforts, American women today have the freedom to obtain an education, vote, hold positions in whatever they please, and lead single lives without being classified as a spinster or a freak. Victorian women began the wave in women’s rights and can be considered to all women today as one thing: heroines.
Works Cited
Advice to Young Ladies, Published 1848.
Burnett, John. “Victorian Working Women: Sweated Labor.”
