Women in Victorian Britain

1. Women in Victorian Britain Rights and Views.

2. During the whole of the 19th Century women had no political rights though there had been some movements in other areas to advance the rights of women.

3. Advancements • In 1839, a law was passed which stated that if a marriage broke down and the parents separated, children under seven years of age should stay with their mother

4. In 1857, women could divorce husbands who were cruel to them or husbands who had left them.

5. In 1870, women were allowed to keep money they had earned.

6. In 1891, women could not be forced to live with husbands unless they wished to

7. These were very important laws which advanced the rights of women. However, they were good laws on paper. If a woman left her husband for whatever reason, it would have been very difficult for her to keep herself and children simply because the attitude of Victorian Britain was that women should stay at home and look after their husbands

8. The culture of the time meant that very few women were skilled in any obvious profession and, therefore, there were few jobs that paid well for women during the nineteenth century.

9. This view was supported by Queen Victoria - she hardly did anything to advance the cause of women. In 1870, Queen Victoria had written "let women be what God intended, a helpmate for man, but with totally different duties and vocations." 

10. Example of the problems • As an example of the difficulties women faced, one lady called Elizabeth Garrett Anderson against all the odds qualified as a doctor. However, she got very few people on her books in London as men would not be treated by a woman and women tended to remain with their male GP's as that was the way it was done. It took a long time before Anderson got a decent reputation among Londoners - and she faced much hostility along the way.