Women's Rights in the Nineteenth Century

Patricia Morris

Instructor Maurno

English 112

March 17, 2015

Women’s Rights in the Nineteenth Century

During the Victorian era women had very little rights. Very little freedom. Society’s expectations were very different from today’s expectations. Women were treated completely different than men.  Henrik Ibsen's concerns about the position of women in society are brought to life in his play “A Doll's House.” He believed that women had a right to develop their own individuality, but in reality, their role was often self-sacrifical. Women were not treated as equals with men, either in relation to their husbands or society, as is clear from Torvald's horror of his employees thinking he has been influenced in a decision about Krogstad's job by his wife.

Women could not conduct business or control their own money, for which they needed the authorization of the man who 'owned' them - husband, brother or father. Moreover, they were not educated for responsibility. Nora falls foul of both injustices, by taking out a loan without the authority of her husband or father, and by believing, out of ignorance of the world, that she could get away with forging a signature.

According to author Helena Wojtczak, “the average working class wife was either pregnant or breast-feeding from wedding day to menopause,” bearing approximately eight pregnancies, and ultimately raising approximately five children. Also, working class women were expected to continue working throughout their entire pregnancy. In reference to pregnancy outside of marriage, Wojtczak notes that it was notably common for a working class woman to become pregnant out of wedlock, and due to the social stigma involved, and the possibility of unemployment, these women often chose to conceal their pregnancy.

By the mid nineteenth century, Abrams states that Victorian middle class women were giving birth to their children at home, and taking a more active role in the nursing of their infants, thereby reinforcing their prescribed roles as mothers. Though fairly rare in the middle class, unwed mothers-to-be were pressed into marrying the father, or sent away to give birth in secrecy, and give the child up for adoption (Wojtczak).

Being that birth control literature was illegal, it can be assumed that the upper class woman was not exempt from constant and continuous pregnancy. However, Wojtczak notes that upper class families had fewer children than their lower counterparts, which leads us to believe that the more educated had knowledge of how to avoid pregnancy. Also, pregnancy outside of marriage rarely occurred among this class because of close monitoring of its young ladies by chaperons (Wojtczak).

The law viewed women as a virtual nonentity, “She was strictly under her husband’s care and protection” (Ziemba), and therefore the law need not concern itself with her well-being. This legal consideration contributed heavily to the disparity in rulings concerning divorce. If a woman committed adultery it constituted a violation, and a grave offense against the “care and protection” her husband bestowed upon her. But a man could commit adultery and still treat his wife benevolently with adequate concern for her safety and comfort. The same unfortunate circumstance applied to property. Women as nonentities possessed nothing, all their earnings went to her husband. As man and wife became one so did their belongings. Yet the man and not the couple constituted this “one”, and possessed absolute control over the all the commodities at its disposal (Ziemba).

“A married woman’s total dependence on her husband was reinforced by a social system that was built upon that dependence.” (Finlay, 3) Women, cast utterly to the whims of their husbands, felt bitterly the pangs of uxorial oppression. Beginning the century without means of obtaining a divorce, without a right to their beloved offspring, and without a claim upon any worldly goods, women occupied a truly dismal state. Yet through the reforms of the Victorian, divorce would become more universally obtainable as well as a liberating medium for women.