Essay On Victorian Era Women

In the Victorian Era, most women were house wives. These women stayed at home and tended to the house and family, but there were a small percentage of women that had other occupations. About 3% of all white women during the Victorian era and 25% of all black women were part of the working force and worked for wages. Most of these women were either a maid, nurse, laundress, teacher, psychiatrist, or social worker. Since there were so few women who worked at these jobs, only 9 out of every 10 homes had domestic help (maid, nurse, or laundress). Besides these jobs there is also another way that some wives stayed at home and earned money. This was by farming; some farm wives earned money from selling butter, milk, and other farm products that they produced on their farm.
A Woman's Qualities …show more content…
During this time period, women had to get an Act of Parliament* to get a divorce. But in 1857, the Matrimonial Causes Act allowed women to obtain a divorce without the Act of Parliament. This Act also allowed for women to keep the money that they earned from their job instead of having to give it to their former husband. When a married couple got divorced, the women were allowed to have custody of their children if she had the proper accommodations. The act that allowed this was the Custody of Infants Act, which was passed in 1839.
From 1840 to 1873, if a girl was finished with her studies and wanted to become further educated, she was not allowed to go to college. In 1874, the London School of Medicine for women was created. This allowed women, who wanted to further their studies in medicine, become doctors. Even though the London School of Medicine was a step up for women education, it wasn't until 1878 that they were allowed to go to a normal university. Before this, they were segregated from the males in education. The London University was the first to offer an equal education as men. This helped make women more