Cruel Shadow of the Victorian Age towards Femininity

The Victorian Age (1837-1901) shaped society with the various impositions of morality which was based on the suppressive effects on the sexual, social, and economic identity of women.

These two different pictures offer a kind of summary about the situation of women living in the Victorian age. As you can see, there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor women. However, the only common point is their fate is repressed and managed by the patriarchal society. Although the Victorian age had taken its name from Queen Victoria, it was completely deprived of women's rights. Even the concept of marriage was considered acceptable only if it was purified from passion and love.

In Victorian England, the rapid development of industrialization gave a more profitable shape to the economy, but also revealed a variety of injustices that were completely based on class discrimination divided into these three groups; lower or working class, middle class, and upper or aristocrat class in the society. The most unfortunate women were the members of the lower class in which they sometimes had to make a living by working as prostitutes because of suffering from severe poverty. On the other hand, the middle and upper-class women had a kind of economic welfare thanks to the presence of their fathers, brothers, or husbands, their comfort zone was up to a certain point depending on the decisions that their closest male relatives would make for their monetary, social and political interests. At this point, the two different definitions made for all of them had been revealed as chaste and bad women. Accordingly, the concept of morality had been completely tried to work just on the women. Thus, as in the many dark parts of history, this age also had created a kind of a cruel shadow restricting, exploiting, and labeling women despite all its striking improvements.

Picture Resources: https://fiveminutehistory.com/fashions-of-the-late-victorian-era/

https://www.vintag.es/2019/12/victorian-working-women.html