Women's Roles in the Victorian Era

Introduction

The Victorian era was during the rule of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). The roles of women were based on whatever class they were born into. Their lifestyle, education, and job opportunities were based off their classes. Rarely did women marry to higher or move up classes. There were four different classes: Nobility and Gentry, Middle Class, Working Class, and Under Class.

Nobility and Gentry Class: Offered women a chance to live luxurious lives with a wide range of job oppurtunities, high education, lavish parties, and wealthy aquantances.

Middle Class: Women were required to be highly educated so that they could work into the family business. Mostly tried to marry into Nobility. Some middle class women obtained jobs for themselves as nurses or writers.

Working Class: Were women who had to work for a living. They usually had jobs sewing or even in factories. Working class and Middle class had the largest number of women belonging to them.

Under Class: Was the lowest of the classes usually unemployed very poor women belong to this class. Most women were prostitutes, beggars, and single mothers. If you were born into under class you most likely stayed there.

  

Task

Your task is to research and answer these questions:

1.-What is the difference between the roles of women in the Victorian era and the roles of women in present day?

2.-What is the main duty of the Nobility and Gentry class?

3.-Do you think that having a woman as Queen during this time helped women be treated more equally? Explain.

4.-What was the Married Women's Property Act of 1887?

 5.-What did children of single mothers of the lower class do for work?

 

Process
Evaluation

Grading Rubic:

Information               1                          2                     3                    4

                        All informa-          Most informa-      Some informa-     None of the infor-

                        tion is correct      tion is correct      tion is correct      mation is correct

Punctutation             1                           2                       3                        4

and grammar    No punctuation      Few punctuation     Some punctuation    Many punctuation

                 and grammatical     and grammatical      and grammatical      and grammatical

                     errors                   erros                     errors                   errors

Comprehension          1                          2                         3                        4

                      All information         Most information    Some information     Information is

                      is easy to read        is easy to read      is easy to read        not easily read

                      and understand       and understand      and understand      or understood

Relates to Topic        1                       2                          3                       4

                     All information      Most information     Some information     Minimal information

                     relates to the       relates to the         relates to the         relates to the topic

                     topic                   topic                    topic

Conclusion

During the Victorian era women's roles were all about women working and providing for their families depending on whatever class they were born in.  Most women during this time were highly educated and although still not looked at as the stronger sex were very indepenhedent indeed.  The Victorian era symbolizes a revolution for women and the social classes they had to live with.

Credits