Women in Victorian Britain were valued most specifically for their virtue, or their virginity. It is ironic to me considering that women in Europe celebrate their sexuality so openly today versus the Mid 19th – 20th Century. Or rather, the woman is simply more widely respected and thus it has caused a decline in the need to emphasize virtue all together. An article released entitled, “How the British Changed Their Mind About Sex” released that a significant reason for this is that feminism has become so prominent in culture (How British changed their minds about sex). Men are now participating in household chores. Additionally, post-war culture essentially reconstructed the British woman by calling for upheaval of the traditional family life. Women began working and thus experienced extreme scrutiny (Giles, 1992, p. 240). I find this to be a commonality in how women began to assert their significance; in moments of war, it was women to held our economies together.
Which brings me back to Victorian Britain – the loss of “chastity” had ramifications and women were not permitted to be an entity separate from their husbands. My favorite piece from this semester was John Stuart Mill’s, “The Subject of Women,” where Mill recognizes the intelligence and capability of women. Mill argues for women to be of equality to men – yes, equal to men. It is still an aspect that I find so profound and so ground breaking for its time. I often wonder about the backlash that Mill had to receive for his nuanced beliefs and untimely statements. I also wonder what it was like to be a woman during this time (Mill). I wonder how suppressed and frustrated one might feel in their own skin simply because of genitalia. Purity was of the upmost important feature. The concept of the ‘Fallen Woman’ itself focused on what happens when women deviate from the expectations: domestication and, unattainable most certainly, perfection (The Fallen woman).
I will forever be so grateful for every woman who paved the tiresome path of equality (not so long) before me.
Resources:
(2015, October 06). The 'Fallen Woman' in Victorian Britain. Retrieved June 21, 2020, from https://womenshistorynetwork.org/the-fallen-woman-in-victorian-britain/
Giles, J. (1992). ‘Playing Hard to Get’: Working‐class women, sexuality and respectability in Britain, 1918‐40. Women's History Review,1(2), 239-255. doi:10.1080/0961202920010203