Women and Children during the Nineteenth Century

Currents of Thought

Women and Children in the Labor Force

Early century, women spinners work at home, may even earn more than husband

Married women are expected to take a domestic role

In mid 1820's, spinning and weaving were put into factories, work to be done by women and children

English Factory Act of 1833: shortens children's work hours, breaks family ties.

Women in France worked the land, England more domestic work

Conditions for all were harsh

Child Working in Textile Mills

Exploited sexually and monetarily Low wages for women lead to increase in

prostitutionDuring Second Industrial Revolution there was a

large scale expansion of jobs available to womenWorked in bureaucracies, stores, as teachers, etc.Women attempting to support themselves rarely

get adequate incomeWhile some women work to supplement

husband's income, most leave the work force when they get married

Women & Children in the Labor Force (CTD.)

At first, family worked at textiles in the home as a family unit

Early factory owners allow men to employ wife and children as assistants

Increase in machinery that requires only unskilled attendants leads to men for the first time supervising people who are not his family European family changing from chief unit of production and consumption to becoming the chief unit of consumption alone

Family and Reproductive Trends

Family & Reproductive Trends (CTD)

Because wages can be sent farther distances, children can move farther away

Urbanization leads to a wider possibility for marriages

Increase in birth earlier in century because children workers are economic assets

Smaller families become acceptable in mid 1870's as most naturally become smaller due to the dangers of childbirth and the creation of contraceptives.

Men are supposed to chief financial income of the familyNineteenth Century Family

Portrait

All women have the responsibility to home life—cooking, cleaning, children

Higher up on the social ladder, more time spent at home

Lower class women consistently = working class

1800’s-1850’s, usually work as clerks alongside husbands/fathers in business. After, women are pushed back into gender roles.

Women’s Experiences Based on Class

Lower/ Working Classexploited economically17 hour work days for less

pay than men  textile workers1/3 of women worked as

servants  not valued because they

abandon their gender roles. Nurses raise their children

young women in prostitution

 generally did not go to work, income of male family members sufficed

domestic roles-- raising children and instructing servants in household chores

 consumers of manufactured fineries

 spent most of their daily life inside the home

Women’s Experiences Based on Class

Middle/Upper Class

Lower Class Working Mother

Women’s Experiences Based on ClassUpper Class Victorian Women

Modernism-a tendency in theology to accommodate traditional religious teaching to contemporary thought and especially to devalue supernatural elements

1870s- Modernism is marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. Driven by the desire to break away from established social and political ideas.

Post WWI (1914-1918)- society is more inclined to modernistic views

Women in Modernism

Women in ModernismVirginia Woolf 1882-1941 Mrs. Dalloway (1925) To the

Lighthouse(1927) Stream of Consciousness work focuses on the independence of

women in literature and art Gertrude Stein Composition as Explanation (1926) The

Making of Americans (1925) translation of abstractism into literary

prose

Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) painter, sister of Virginia Woolf helped to direct the art movement

from Post-Impressionism to Modernism Still Life on a Mantelpiece, 1914

“Still Life on a Mantel Piece”

Political Feminism- “The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to men.”

Many obstacles to achieving equalityChallenged by middle class liberals

The Subjection of Women- Harriet TaylorSuffrage in England= Europe’s most advanced women’s

movement Millicent Fawcett- National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies Emmeline Pankhurst- Women’s Social and Political Union,

followers earned nickname “suffragettes” Did not receive the vote until after WWI, women could not vote

until 3o, as opposed to men who could vote at 21 Throughout the rest of Europe, women demanded rights widely,

yet little progress was made before WWI

The Rise of Political Feminism

Stereotyped views of womenBacklash to modern feminist thoughtResult of both society’s interest in science and

non-rational thought Science:

Both Charles Darwin and T.H. Huxley held women in traditional gender roles.

Freud saw rearing sons as women’s greatest accomplishment

Auguste Comte portrayed women as biologically and intellectually inferior to men.

Anti-Feminism

Women had less access to Education then menMore illiterate men then womenUniversity education remained “men only” until

the third quarter of the centuryAbsence of secondary education prevented

women from going to UniversitiesEducated male elite feared the challenge of

educated womenBecause education was limited, jobs were limited

Education for Women and Children

Typical 19th century secondary academy. Often times boy’s only, girls admitted in extenuating circumstances. Structure differs from that of American “school house”.

Timeline1820's Spinning and weaving put into

factories. Unmarried workers are the

majority.1833 English Factory Act of 1833

shortens children's work hours and provides for education.

Mid 1840's - In the British textile industry,

men were seen as the sole breadwinners. 

1847 British Parliament mandates

10-hour workday.1850 When, in general, women begin

to be pushed back into traditional gender roles.

Decrease in textile jobs begin.

1870's Modernism is marked by a

strong and intentional break with tradition. Driven by the desire to break away from established social and political ideas.

Birthrate drop in France, leading to the acceptance of smaller families.

1878 - University of London admits

women. 1882 Great Britain- Married Woman's

Property Act allows married women to own property.

1884 - France allows divorce.

1903 Women's Social and Political

Union founded.

1910 Suffragettes begin to use

violence.1914 Russian women begin to attend

universities.1918 - British women over thirty

receive right to vote.1925 - Gertrude Stein's Composition

as Explanation 1926 - Gertrude Stein's The Making

of Americans1929 Virginia Woolf publishes A

Room of One's Own. 

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