For the women of the Victorian era, motherhood was the ultimate goal. Society regarded it as the highest achievement alongside a decent husband and home. To gain the status of “Angel of the House”, a woman didn’t need an education. She needed to learn skills such as sewing, cooking and time management. She also needed to learn social skills so she could meet the neighbours and deal with servants. Most women learned how to be wives and mothers from their own families. Victorians believed deeply in the importance of family and the job of keeping home and family together was down to the woman because the man was at work all day. Also, organising the home, keeping it clean, providing tasty meals and bringing up children was seen as providing enough emotional fulfilment for women.
This definition of gender roles developed an ideology known as “separate spheres”. This ideology took what was seen as the natural characteristics of men and women and used them to define the roles even further. Men were seen as the physically stronger sex and so they did either an incredibly physical job such as labouring, or they went into a job where they had to be emotionally strong and resilient. These jobs included banking, running businesses, being a magistrate or a doctor, for example.
Women were deemed physically and emotionally weaker but with better morals. They would be shocked and easily upset if they had to do men’s work like doctoring or money lending, where the men came into frequent contact with all sorts of dodgy folk. Therefore, they were seen as the better choice for staying at home and bringing up the children.
Once married, a woman’s property was given over to her husband. Even if she inherited a substantial house or sum of money, that became her husband’s upon marriage. He then gave her an allowance of money. Her children also became her husband’s property and he had the ultimate say over their education and future. This is ironic, given that women were pushed into the role of mother and home maker but had to defer to their husbands for the final say in any social or economic matter.
