Changing Role Of Women 1860-1930

Angel in the house and the seperate spheres concepts dominated Victorian attitudes.

Expectations of upper-class and middle-class women:

Must be domestic: a wife and a mother

Working-Class women:

Had to work to live. Jobs included: domestic services, textiles and agriculture.

Angel in the House

The first 'Angel' was the Emily Patmore, the wife of the man who created the poem, Angel in the House.

Idea: women are gentle, weak and tender. They had to be protected from work. Their place was in the home.

Seperate Spheres

Mena and women have different roles in society. Men work and women tend to the home. (Some middle-class women were accepted at dressmakers, milliners or governesses if their family had 'fallen on hard times'.)

• 1839 Custody of Infants Act
• 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act
• 1864 First Contagious Diseases Act
• 1870 First Married Women's Property Act