Women In The Victorian Era

The Victorian era was a nineteenth-century time period during which many political, economic, and social changes took place throughout England. One of the most prominent categories of discourse regarding this era is that of femininity and the Victorian woman, who was often suppressed and objectified by the patriarchal society in which she existed. However, during the later parts of the nineteenth century, women began to fight for and eventually gain a level of independence in their personal lives, while also impacting and altering the overall hierarchy of their society. Oftentimes, authors use the narratives within their novels to make a statement regarding an event, ideology, or issue in the real world. Arguably, Elizabeth Gaskell uses Cranford …show more content…
Regardless of their social class or familial affiliation, women in this time period were held to rigid standards and often pressured by the expectations that they were required to uphold at all times. Most prominently, a woman’s existence was usually described in relation to the existence or presence of a male figure in her life. Griffin explains the ways in which “women in the nineteenth century were oppressed by laws that systematically and deliberately served the interests of men” (Griffin, 4). Every aspect of a female’s life, including her upbringing, was in an effort to make her a desirable wife. As Lydia Murdoch describes, “girls’ education continued to encourage the ideal that women’s primary role was domestic, and thus female learning had not value in and of itself but as a means to promote the accomplishments of men (Murdoch, 163). Women had to maintain a certain appearance in order to please men, perpetuating the idea that all efforts in life should eventually lead to marriage. After marrying, women were taught that their sole duty was to be a homemaker, based upon the idea that a woman should be “the angel in the house whose greatest pleasure is to please” (Langlinais, 76). A respectable wife’s job consisted of ensuring that the family’s estate was in order, as well as upholding communal standards through calling cards, dinner parties, and other such matters. This penultimate focus on appearance and constant subjection to judgment is exemplified through Cranford’s ‘elegant economy’ and the women’s determination to preserve social standards despite their lack of monetary resources (Gaskell, 4). Though the emergence of the Victorian era encapsulated limiting, oppressive societal standards of women and femininity, progress was made towards female empowerment and equality as