Taking the Lid Off the Victorian Era Essay Example for Free

Taking the Lid Off the Victorian Era Essay The Victorian Era has been a time of power and wealth. A journey of evolution took place in this period. People of this generation have a tremendously exciting age that at some point it was called the Second English Renaissance (Moore, 2007). After extensive research on this, I was duty-bound to take a stand on the status of the women of this period. Women have a role in this society. They are as what one writer had said called saints but saints with no legal rights. The Victorian Era viewed women as immaculate- pure and they put women on a pedestal. During this period, they envisioned women as so called Ideal Women. Thus, staying pure and clean from all immoral acts. Bearing offspring is a huge responsibility and tending to her household once she is married are her main preoccupations (DeBay, 2007). However, I sense that there is a great deal of deprivation and injustice that took place on the Victorian Era. Since the women status are defined as that of Ideal Women. And with the way that they have envisioned the Victorian Women, I can truly say that there is a great influence in how women are being treated in this contemporary period of ours. One key issue is the Victorian marriage. Women in this period have made a stature of marrying at a very young age for the reason that their parents want them to get married. The women in that age were born and raised just to get married and bear children. As they get married , women begin to lose their identity. Their husbands treat them as their own possession. Women married because of stature. They do not want to risk being shunned by their families if she marries someone who does not have the same stature or does not hold the same or higher standard of living (DeBay, 2007). And when a woman does break her engagement to her betrothed then she will be outcast by the society and never shall she marry again. It is the ultimate manner of losing your social status. To put it straightforwardly, women on this era are projected to be perfect women. They need to be very womanly and neither can they demand on the things that hurt them. They need to just endure the pain and sufferings becoming a wife. They are expected to be the housewife. They aren’t taught to complain but rather, are taught to follow all demands of the their husbands. Divorce is forbidden. If she divorces her husband then there would not be alimony and the custody of their children will be with the husbands. They are not given equal rights on child rearing once they divorce or separate to their husbands (Moore, 2007). Sex and women have a different process as well. Men are considered to be polygamous in the Victorian period. However, a woman caught doing so will be put to trial and is considered unclean. Thus losing her status in society. A man can go and satisfy his needs to another woman. Men did not have any restrictions, which makes it worse for the wives, because they just need to accept their husbands’ behavior. In effect, her reputation is at stake in society. In fundamental nature, this behavior of women has been carried on to this day. Moreover, there is a great deal of emotional and physical abuse of women in terms of sexual experience to women. Their husbands feel that this is just the sole obligation of their wives – that is, to provide them the sexual pleasure that they want. In these terms, no rights were given to women (Battan, 1999). One other issue is that women were not given the chance for to educate themselves. They were ridiculed and dismissed once they get into the fields which, on that particular era were considered to be a unnecessary for women to take. That only men are the authorized to take. Women were not encouraged to attend a university. For the very reason that women are supposed to be an ornament of the society. Arts and Literature, however, were the subjects that women should learn and were of great importance in the education of women (Miller, 2007). Women had limited rights. Their incomes do not belong to them but to their husbands. They surrender every penny they earn to their spouses. They cannot go and have some contracts with them without the knowledge of their husbands. Further, their husbands need to approve of the contracts as well (Battan, 1999). Finally, I can truly say that the Victorian Women has slowly emerged their limitations and awareness on the aspects that were discussed and analyzed. These key issues until now have been controversial with the new generation. Limiting myself to this study, there is a similarity on the Victorian and the generation of today. While we are trying to break on the women of the Victorian Era, we are still on the process of trying to be free with the laws, rights and procedure that had happened on this controversial and tremendous period (Battan, 1999; Miller, 2007). In conclusion, many women’s groups emerged throughout the decades to diversify and fight for the role of women in the society. Giving women more freedom and rights as an individual and not just as a partner of a spouse. The Victorian Era as much as grandiose it is; women suffered more in this period. And it is with great anticipation, hope and fulfillment that this era has slowly progressed .While there are still causes for despair, there have been milestones in the struggle for gender equality. References Battan, J. (1999). The ‘rights’ of husbands and the ‘duties’ of wives: power and desire in the american bedroom, 1850-1910. Journal of Family History, 24, 165-86. DeBay, R. (2007). Hygiene et Physiologie du Marriage. Retreived on June 14, 2007 from http://caxton. stockton. edu/browning/stories/storyReader$3 Miller, I. (2007). Victorian past. Retrieved on June 14, 2007 from http://www. victoriaspast. com/frontporch/victorianera. htm Moore, M. (2003). Women in the Victorian Age. London: Mcmillan.