Women In The Odd Women When Gissing

The Odd Women When Gissing 's novel was published in 1893, the number of women exceeded the number of men by over 500,000. This made it impossible for every woman to find a husband and also led to too many women entering the “traditional” female fields mentioned above. Women were forced to find new jobs to support themselves such as the clerical and business realms. For the women not lucky enough to find a suitable husband or who lacked the education necessary for a professional life the alternatives were prostitution and slaving in shops. This dark contrast is illustrated well by Gissing through Miss. Eade as a prostitute and Millie Vesper, who is able to find a job and works hard.
This problem mainly affected the lower and middle class women, as the upper class women were considered attractive because of their family 's social standings and economic situations. The lower and middle class women had nothing special to bring to a marriage and generally only the beautiful …show more content…
He is saying that women must begin to seek employment in fields other than the traditional ones. If women want to continue to evolve and advance their social position in Victorian England, they must find new ways to earn a living and provide a suitable income to live and survive on. It is altogether a story of odd women, women who suffer in the dreadful whirl of English daily life. This is because the brutal truth is that there are too many women to be married, and most of them are quite unfitted to realize for themselves that to be successful, to break away from what is confining them, they must be “odd” (p.336). The traditional jobs of women are overflowing with too many women, which is creating lower wages and harder working conditions and indifference for the women by their employers. Unable to find traditional jobs or to marry, Gissing is stating that women must challenge traditional social