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Gender/NationThroughout multiple readings covered in my blogs, the way women were treated and expected to behave is brought up many, many times. Throughout the 1800 and 1900’s, women did not have a lot of rights nor hold very much respect in society. Although women still to this day experience unequal treatment to men at times, equality for genders is a very modern idea.
During the Victorian Era, women were basically groomed from childhood to become a wife. Their main goal in life was to find a man to marry. While on this journey of love (or dare I say, journey of less than love) women had many rules to follow. Courtship was a real thing apparently? Courtship is where most of the rules came into play. Women weren’t allowed to address men without first being introduced. They weren’t allowed to have any impure conversations. They couldn’t touch a man. However, women were most definitely allowed to flirt with their fans. Because how could that not get a man going? After courtship came engagement, which seems to me to just be an extended courtship except they were allowed to hold hands now. Finally, after the engagement came the marriage, but that’s a whole other story in itself. Once married, anything a woman had now became her husbands. Bye-bye independence. A lot of times, marriages during this time weren’t even based on love. Men would marry women for the things they will get from the marriage such as land, money, or social standing. After getting married, women spent their lives cooking, cleaning, homemaking, having children and taking care of said children. Riveting, right? So, what about divorce? Women could divorce men because of adultery, but it wasn’t easy at all. She would have to prove the adultery and also prove that her husband was being cruel to her. Say a woman can prove both of those things, easy divorce, right? Wrong. Divorce during this time is incredibly expensive and where is the woman’s money? It’s her husband’s now, remember? It’s also detrimental to one’s social status to get a divorce. Divorce is looked down upon in society. All of this is to say, divorce was not common at all and not accepted. To be a woman in the Victorian Era, am I right? |