Women in the Victorian era

Victorian
1837–1901
Queen Victoria
Preceded by	Regency era
Followed by	Edwardian era
Monarch(s)	Queen Victoria

The status of women in the Victorian era was often seen as an illustration of the striking discrepancy between the United Kingdom's national power and wealth. During the era symbolized by the reign of a female monarch, Queen Victoria, women did not have the right to vote,^[1] sue,^[2] or – if married – own property.^[3][4] At the same time, women participated in the paid workforce in increasing numbers following the Industrial Revolution. Feminist ideas spread among the educated middle classes, discriminatory laws were repealed, and the women's suffrage movement gained momentum in the last years of the Victorian era.

George William Joy's depiction of men and women travelling in an omnibus in the late Victorian era (1895)

Further Reading

• Goodwin, Harvey (1885). An address to women . London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

References

1. Buckner, Phillip Alfred (2005). Rediscovering the British World. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.
2. Wise, Sarah (2009). The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum. London: Vintage Books. pp. 112. ISBN 978-1-84413-331-4.
3. Buckner, Phillip Alfred (2005). Rediscovering the British World. Calgary: Calgary University Press. p. 137.
4. Kreps, Barbara Irene (Spring 2002). "The Paradox of Women: The Legal Position of Early Modern Wives and Thomas Dekker's The Honest Whore". ELH. 69 (1): 83–102. doi:10.1353/elh.2002.0007. S2CID 144628070.