Woman

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Womans World In the 19th Century
Portrait of Miss Margaret Henderson by John
William Waterhouse, 1900
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Victorian

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Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean
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The Corset
Camille Clifford
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• Corsets, crinolines, hoopskirts exaggerate hips,
  breasts, waist
• Impede movement,
• breathing
• Foster unrealistic
• image of womans
• body

Cutaway view of crinoline, Punch, 1856
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Idealization of Woman as Angel/Goddess/Fairy/Mothe
r

• Paradox of ideal vs. real
• The Angel in the House
• (Coventry Patmore)
• Blessed Damozel
• Lady of Shalott
• (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Emily Patmore, The Angel in the House by John
Brettx
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Goddess
The Blessed Damozel by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Fairy
Midsummers Eve by Edward Robert Hughes
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Angel
Angel by Abbot Handerson Thayer, 1889
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Mother
Mother and Child by Lord Leighton

• Womans highest calling

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Influence of Queen Victoria 1819-1901

• Icon of femininie domesticity
• Devoted wife to Albert and mother of nine
• Retreated to seclusion at Alberts death in 1861

Portrait of Queen Victoria Sir Francis Grant, 1843
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Impact of Industrial Revolution

• Separate Spheres
• Social theory enforcing gender polarity

Home
Work Place
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Separate Spheres

• Men are rational, independent, competitive, and
  aggressive
• Women are emotional, maternal, domestic, and
  dependent.
• Men leave home to work public sphere
• (business politics)
• Men have permission for moral laxity
• Women rule the home and are confined to it
  private sphere
• Role of helpmeet, domestic manager, moral
  exemplum
• Home is haven from factory, firm, world
• Plush décor reflects cocooning

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Marriage

• All wealth owned, inherited, or earned went
  legally to husband until 1882
• Divorce extremely rare
• for woman to secure
• Inheritance through
• male line
• Until 1891, runaway wife
• could be arrested and imprisoned
• Husband could divorce for adultery wife could
  not.

1850 Wedding Attire
Victorian wedding attire
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AccidentalPregnancy

• Birth control literature
• illegal
• Activities heavily chaperoned--unwed pregnancy in
  upper class rare
• Domestic servants often seduced by employer
  (typically expelled from house)
• Infant abandonment/murder common
• Unwed mother could sue father in court for child
  support

Richard Redgraves The Outcast 1851
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Careers
19th century milliners

• Low-paid jobs only
• 1851, 43 of British women over 20 had no husband
  (30 single, 13 widowed)
• 90 of these worked

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Upper Work

• Upper tradeswomen in
• towns milliners
• dressmakers
• Upper servants of the
• wealthy governesses,
• skilled cooks, housekeepers, senior
  parlour-maids, head house-maids and lady's maids

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Lower Work

• Lower working classes
• began work age 8-12
• Worked until marriage if . . .
• All earnings belonged to husband
• Lower street hawkers flowers,
• sweets, seafood, and fortune-telling
• Lower servants of middle class kitchen-maid,
  scullery-maid, laundress, nursemaid, housemaid
• Single maid-of-all-work 14-16 hours/day

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Domestic Servants

• Largest category of womans work--50

1880-1890
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No job-No family

• Charity of wealthy benefactors or church
• Prostitution
• Begging
• Workhouses
• Suicide

Watts Found Drowned
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• The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

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Acknowledgements

• Young servant www.history.powys.org.uk
• Wedding gowns www.victoriana.com
• Milliners www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/w
  elfare/womens_work_02.shtml
• Hunts The Awakening Conscience
  www.csun.edu/jaa7021/h498/part3.htm
• Corsets www.staylace.com/gallery/index.html
• Crinoline www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/victcfsh.htm
  l
• Camille Clifford www.staylace.com/gallery
• Queen Victoria www.victorianweb.org
• Servants www.sensibility.com/vintageimages/victor
  ian/
• Leighton Mother www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/l
  eighton_mother.htm
• Pirates of the Carribean www.erasofelegance.com
• Hughes www.denison.edu/art/fairy
• Waterhouses Portrait of Miss Margaret Henderson
  http//.cgfa.sunsite.dk/
• Thayer Angel www.fineartcompanyltd.co.uk