WOMEN OF 19th CENTURY ENGLAND

DIVIDED BY SOCIAL CLASS

It is commonly believed that all wives were kept by husbands until the mid-20th century. It is true that women married to wealthy or professional men were usually supported by him, a symbol of status to which the 'upper' working class also aspired. However, in relation to the majority it is a myth: most working class wives worked for wages.

In 1851, forty-three percent of British women over 20 had no spouse: thirty percent were single and thirteen percent widowed. Of these, ten percent lived on personal or family wealth, and the other ninety percent were employed. In 1851 about thirty percent of the workforce was female.

I have chosen to concentrate the 19th-century section of this website on the 1840s to the 1860s, simply because there is so much source material after then, that to attempt to include it all would have rendered this project unmanageable.

Hastings & St Leonards

• Living conditions
• Cuttings from the local newspapers
• Mid-century Miscellany

Conception and childbirth

• Conception and childbirth
• Murder at the Presbytery, 1851
• Coroner's report of a child's death, 1855

The Aristocracy and Gentry

• The Aristocracy and Gentry
• Ladies of the Uplands and the Lawn

The Working Class

• Women of the 'upper' working class
• Hoteliers
• Publicans
• Tradeswomen
• Lodging house keepers
• Schoolmistresses
• Domestic servants
• Miscellaneous occupations
• Seamstresses
• Women of the 'lower' working class
• Prostitution

The Underclass

• Women of the underclass
• Magistrates Court reports