Treatment Of Women In The Victorian Era
The most common way to characterize women in that period, known as the Victorian Era in England, from 1837 to 1900 was savagery and barbarism. Women were expected to be limited to childbearing and being a housewife, In the Victorian era, there where, four classes of social structure, the nobility, gentry, middle class, the upper working class and the lower working class. These categories all had the same thing in common, women led a highly restrictive life with their husband and children being the center of their existence. The women who were considered lower-class remained single most of their lives and had to take up menial jobs like laborers, prostitution, or any activity which involved physical exertion. Some of the other duties a Victorian woman had to do, kept her husband happy.
Once a Victorian woman was married, she would lose any right to property and her identity was lost. Victorian women were also not allowed to vote. By law, she was under the complete and total control of her husband. The husband had control over his wife’s body, and beatings and marital rape were legal because the law was designed to benefit men rather than women. In the case of the marital bed, sexual intercourse and the refusal of sex were ground for the annulment of marriage and the husband also had a complete say. In regards to divorce, it wasn’t allowed in England until the Matrimonial cause act of 1857. Since you couldn’t just sign papers and be on your way, men had to find another way out. Wife selling became an entirely legitimate way to get out of a marriage. This way of life that continued into the 19th Century in rural Britain. A man would tie a rope around a woman and take her to the public square, and ask for offers, she could be sold in public or private. It was said that one woman was sold for a pint of beer, but most were sold for a decent amount of cash.
Now the issue of adultery was also in the man's favor, while if a woman committed adultery, she was considered perverted and unnatural, this acts also called into play the paternity of the children. Consequently, men believed they could treat women any way they wanted to without any shame. However, because wives were not respected, prostitution reflected what men considered all women to be, which was whores that were there just for their gratification and sexual desires. It's important to keep in mind that the only cases that came to court were those of excessively brutal nature, where the wife’s life was endangered. It was considered normal for women of the Victorian Era to be slapped, punched and kicked with boots or wooden clogs, and thrown out into the street for the night often in their night grown.
These women experience knocked out teeth, broken jaws, noses and ribs, these were common for that era. Also common was throwing a woman out of a window, beating her about the head with a table leg or broom handle. There are reports of iron pokers being bent from the viciousness of the assault and most of the time the male would only receive little, or no jail time, moreover he would get a fine.
These were horrible atrocities that women in that era endured. If you were unlucky to be not so, attractive, you were strongly advised washing your face with ammonia, then cover yourself with Lead paint, even at night to keep that fresh face look, also rubbing some opium on your face before bed, and for those who were really committed, Sears & Roebuck sold a product called Dr. Rose arsenic complexion wafers, this was arsenic, and women were instructed to eat them. If you were a woman In the Victorian Era and had thin eyebrows and eyelashes, a nightly smear of mercury could help. A woman would use lemon juice, perfume or belladonna as eyedrops, and yes, a lot of women went blind. These were just some of the savagery and barbarism that women had to live through in the Victorian Era.
