Women's Work in the Victorian Era

by Christy Carlyle

William Powell Frith, Many Happy Returns, 1856

[This post was first published at RTG in May of 2014. Updated reprint with author's permission.]

The topic of women’s work in the Victorian era is more complex than you might imagine. During the 19^th century a popular notion of woman as a kind of domestic goddess or “Angel in the House,” based on a popular poem by Coventry Patmore, became prevalent, but the realities of the era were a bit different.

Though many women were responsible for the running of increasingly large families (due in part to an improved infant mortality rate) and tackled the role of household management with skill and finesse, many households were also dependent on women’s work outside the home. In some cases, this meant mothers and married women, particularly widows who had become de facto head of household, were required to supplement or supply the family’s income, but young women, even juvenile girls, also sought various forms of employment during the period.

Women and girls working in a match factory.

With the industrial boom of the mid-Victorian era, technology created a host of new jobs, many of which skilled men eschewed. But even when men were willing to take manufacturing jobs, employers often undercut them by securing the less costly labor of immigrants, women, and children.

Domestic service, in all its various forms, was the most common type of work women pursued outside the home. Work in the textile and clothing sectors was also common, including employment as seamstresses, laundresses, and work in mills that manufactured fabric. Family businesses, such as inn-keeping, might offer women opportunities for more administrative work, such as bookkeeping, managing stock, assisting clients, etc.

Female telegraph operators.

Compulsory elementary education became law in Britain beginning in 1871, but even before the law, women with access to education worked in fields such as teaching, nursing, journalism, and later in the century as telegraph operators, typewriter girls, secretaries, or in retail establishments.

Women of means and leisure often worked too. Though their efforts may have been unpaid, charities have been reliant for centuries on the work of women to care for the poor, sick, injured, and mentally or physically disabled. As the tail end of Victoria’s reign coincided with the start of the Progressive Era, women organized in increasing numbers to do the work of social activism and political reform, taking up the banner of women’s rights, suffrage, safer conditions in the workplace, child labor laws, and addressing many of the other social ills of the period.

Unfortunately, women’s activism and role as breadwinner did not mean she was freed from domestic duties at home. Still the main caretaker at home, Victorian women were often faced with the duel burden of cooking, cleaning, sewing, and caring for children inside the house while earning a supplemental wage outside the home too. While women juggle the same challenges today, Victorian women did not enjoy the luxuries of automatic dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and tumble dryers.

Female nurses on a children's ward.

Also, the choice to pursue employment might curtail a young woman’s options to “have it all” as many of us strive for today. 

In researching the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel for my book, Wanton Wager, I learned that young women who had committed themselves to employment as nurses in the hospital were forbidden from marrying. This meant women had to remain single, with no family to care for them, into their old age. The result is that women worked far past what we might consider retirement age. One story I read mentioned a woman who continued working as a nurse into her eighties because she had no other means of supporting herself.

Women have faced challenges in every century, but the Victorian era offered a unique set regarding the balance of work and home life, while also offering women increased options for employment. By century’s end, women were attending medical school and the U.S. had its first female attorney (that first would not occur in Britain until after the turn of the century). It is difficult to deny that opportunities abounded along with the challenges.

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Wanton Wager (Whitechapel Wagers, Book 2) is set in Victorian London's dangerous East End and matches scarred Afghan War veteran, William Selsby, with spirited Whitechapel nurse, Ada Hamilton. When the two join forces to find Ada's missing sister, they discover passion despite their differences.

BIO:
Fueled by Pacific Northwest coffee and inspired by multiple viewings of every British costume drama she can get her hands on, USA Today bestselling author Christy Carlyle writes sensual historical romance set in the Victorian era. She loves heroes who struggle against all odds and heroines who are ahead of their time. A former teacher with a degree in history, she finds there's nothing better than being able to combine her love of the past with a die-hard belief in happy endings.

Contact Christy at christy@christycarlyle.com or find out more at www.christycarlyle.com