To say that the government micromanaged the financial facets of the lower class society would be an understatement. They had certainly put their fingers into every pie of every aspect of the lower class’ life, at least the reformers certainly expressed their feelings of such a micromanaged oppression. Thompson’s Whigs and Hunters discusses the Black Act in heavy detail. The Black act was initially a means of controlling hunting so that game was readily available for the Royals. The book illustrates the harsh punishment of death the bill entailed far for the small townsfolk surviving on agriculture around forests. Some of the additional crimes were public disorder, mismanaging criminal justice, and crimes or injury against property or people. …show more content…
One of the best sources is Anna Clarke’s The Struggle for the Breeches which discusses both the experience and lack of historiography, particularly in E.P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class. The plebian experience was very different, even from the middle class, and especially with the migration of so many people into cities because “plebian women and men worked together in crowded tenements, workshops and factories, socialized and traded on the street, and drank together in pubs,” while all other class levels had the men and women acting separately. With the move to cities discrimination in housing also became an immediate threat. Having children was looked down upon and resulted in having to live in extensively cramped impoverished neighborhoods or to “pay high rents to become householders and then let our rooms themselves” because lodging houses would not allow children. This lifestyle was likely a detriment to the poor opinion of the lower class as children and wives starved and where left at home while men explored their manhood through promiscuity, bars and clubs, and gambling. When women tried to form clubs for themselves, particularly “female factory workers to the isolation of London servants,” the government intervened with “the Friendly Society Act” in 1794 which “required registration of these clubs.” Both circumstances were significantly different than the gentry. The upper class was expected to present a “masculine private virtue and, by extension public reputation.” Despite blurred gender roles this was a sign of the government’s attempt at keeping social gender expectations as they were before the Industrial Revolution. In fact, it would not be until the end of the era, in the 1830s, when Factory Acts would be passed to better factory hours. The effort of these acts passing were credited to the male, not female, workers. The trend would
Female employment was concentrated in a very small number of low paid areas. The memoirs provided by Emma Griffith in her book are mainly from male perspective. Therefore, the information provided by them can be misleading and in my opinion, often a lot is missed out of what men did not consider as relevant but in fact is the information which really needs be shared. Above that, the stereotype existed during this time. Men were considered as the breadwinner and women were supposed to do the household work and take care of children. But in fact, Industrial Revolution in part was fuelled by the economic necessity of many women, single and married, to find waged work outside their
Mary Poovey, “Domesticity and Class Formation: Chadwick’s 1842 Sanitary Report,” in Making a Social Body: British Cultural Formation, 1839-1864 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 115-131
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
In the summer of 1788, France was on the brink of revolution. Thousands were starving and peasant revolts were popping up all over the country. At this time, French government and society was in a period called the “Old Regime,” where mobility between classes was nearly unheard of. A person born into aristocracy was lucky, while one born into poverty would most likely struggle for their entire life. Women’s roles were “strictly defined,” no matter what class they were a part of (Streissguth 6). Before the revolution, most women did not question where their place was: in the home. It was very rare for a woman to work outside the domestic sphere, because they did not have as much freedom as men, even men in the lower class. In May of 1789, France had fallen into deep economic turmoil and public unrest was high, forcing the king to call the Estates General. The Estates General, according to Thomas Streis...
In the early nineteenth century, women were measured as second-class citizens whose existence was narrowed down to the interior life of the home and the care of them children. After marriage, they did not have any rights to own property, maintain their wages, or sign a contract, and were unable to vote. It was expected that women be dutiful wives, never to hold a thought or opinion independent of their husbands. It was also considered inappropriate for women to travel alone or to speak in public. Women were also taught to cease from pursuing any serious education. Silently floating in their cages, they were seen as merely objects of beauty, and were looked upon as intellectually and physically substandard to men. However, among these simple housekeepers are social reformers, wonderful mothers, and powerful women of faith who changed the world by changing their own.
Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
Women in this era had just begun to secure some freedom from their typical cultural expectations. They were expected to take care of the children, cook, clean, sew and be presentable to society. As jobs were made available to women, only a low percentage of these women started to work outside of the home. This means that many women had chosen to stay inside the home to remain in the role of “house keeper”. Even though the woman attained some freedom they were still considered inferior to men. Men still had the most authority in the household and
The industrialization of the nineteenth century was a tremendous social change in which Britain initially took the lead on. This meant for the middle class a new opening for change which has been continuing on for generations. Sex and gender roles have become one of the main focuses for many people in this Victorian period. Sarah Stickney Ellis was a writer who argued that it was the religious duty of women to improve society. Ellis felt domestic duties were not the only duties women should be focusing on and thus wrote a book entitled “The Women of England.” The primary document of Sarah Stickney Ellis’s “The Women of England” examines how a change in attitude is greatly needed for the way women were perceived during the nineteenth century. Today women have the freedom to have an education, and make their own career choice. She discusses a range of topics to help her female readers to cultivate their “highest attributes” as pillars of family life#. While looking at Sarah Stickney Ellis as a writer and by also looking at women of the nineteenth century, we will be able to understand the duties of women throughout this century. Throughout this paper I will discuss the duties which Ellis refers to and why she wanted a great change.
Two hundred years ago, during the reign of Queen Victoria in England, the social barriers of the Victorian class system firmly defined the roles of women. The families of Victorian England were divided into four distinct classes: the Nobility or Gentry Class, the Middle Class, the Upper Working Class, and lastly, the Lower Working class . The women of these classes each had their own traditional responsibilities. The specifics of each woman’s role were varied by the status of her family. Women were expected to adhere to the appropriate conventions according to their place in the social order . For women in Victorian England their lives were regulated by these rules and regulations, which stressed obedience, loyalty, and respect.
The roles of women have always been a big part of British society. Women have been placed in domestic and less authoritative roles, as compared to the roles that men have been placed in which was to be the provider, and as the leader. Much of the population of the early Victorian era Britain were learning to cope with the new form of labor that was coming about which is known as the industrial revolution. At the same time that men were starting to go way from home to work, more women were looked upon to be the homekeepers and to bear children. After the establishment of cities and a larger middle class women began to try
In life women had only one main goal; to marry. Prior to a woman’s marriage, a woman would learn the basic necessities and qualities of a typical Victorian Woman. She would learn ideals such as cooking, cleaning, weaving, raising children and plenty more. If a woman was well of in the financial aspects, she likely did not have to learn much or work as hard other women due to having maids at hand. Women at the time were typically unable to better educate themselves beyond minimal knowledge of household duties because in essence men ruled society. “A woman was inferior to a mam in all ways except the unique one that counted most [to a man]: her femininity. Her place was in the home, on a veritable pedestal if one could be afforded, and emphatically not in the world of affairs” (Altick, 54).
From looking at The making of the English Working Class it seems quite obvious that E.P Thompson’s main arguments throughout his book are about the notion of ‘class’, in particular the ‘making of the working class’ ; and in order to evaluate his theories we must attempt to look at other historians opinions about his book, and his suggested theories, in order to come to an impartial evaluation.
Men in the upper class had jobs of high ranks and involved less manual work. Occupations of these high ranks would be in the possession of men that were considered Gentlemen. In the Victorian Era, jobs of high skill or importance would qualify men to be a gentlemen. (Victorian Web.) David Cody, in “The Gentlemen” specifies that some of these jobs would be clergymen for the church, parliament members and army officers.
Wojtczak, Helena . "Women's Status In Mid 19th-Century Englanda Brief Overview." English Women's History. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
Throughout the early 1800s, British women most often were relegated to a subordinate role in society by their institutionalized obligations, laws, and the more powerfully entrenched males. In that time, a young woman’s role was close to a life of servitude and slavery. Women were often controlled by the men in their lives, whether it was a father, brother or the eventual husband. Marriage during this time was often a gamble; one could either be in it for the right reasons, such as love, or for the wrong reasons, such as advancing social status. In 19th century Britain, laws were enacted to further suppress women and reflected the societal belief that women were supposed to do two things: marry and have children. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen portrayed a women’s struggle within a society that stresses the importance of marriage and strict behavioral customs. As evidenced by the Bennett daughters: Elizabeth and Jane, as well as Charlotte Collins, marriage for young women was a pursuit that dominated their lives.