Victorian Era Family Life

Victorian Women - Lower Class

Lower class women were not treated very fairly at all.  They normally wore handed down clothes and often (as servants) ate the left over food of the upper class people.  It was extremely likely foe unmarried women to be classed as paupers.  Upon a fathers or husbands death, women would be left barely any money or land.  Money would mostly have been given to the oldest son or another close male relative.  For servants and wives housework took a lot of energy, there days would often consist of sewing machines, mechanical wringers and a cast iron stove.  Throughout the day women that tended to their own houses would make clothes, care for the sick and grow their own foods that the family would eat.  Women would often sell their produce to other families too.  Jobs for the lower class women would often include barmaids, chambermaids and factory workers.  Working in the factories was seen to be better than working in domestic services.  it was a more social job and the hours were much less. 

Victorian Women - Middle Class

Women of the middle classes were often considered guides to lower class women.  They would sponsor lower class mothers and babies and would devote a lot of their spare time to helping in homes, schools and health regimes.  They would pledge certain amounts of their money to help with the lower class women's necessities.  Some of the middle class women would have servants, but they also taught the lower classes how to keep their own homes clean and tidy.  This outlines the fact that the upper class lady thought themselves far superior to the women that had to earn their living.  The usual goal of the middle class woman was to marry into money.  This would allow the women to gain more respect from the upper classes in society.

THE YOUNG VICTORIA trailer (HD)

Victorian Women - Upper class

The life of a wealthy Victorian woman was not particularly difficult.  Their days would consist of activities such as sewing, visiting family/friends, reading, writing letters, entertaining and dancing.  Although there would be several activities they would participate in, their days would be somewhat mundane, consisting if the same daily routines.  A favourite pastime of the Victorian Lady would be to attend evening parties.  Married women would attend with four or five other couples, whilst single women would attend with other unmarried Ladies.  Their attire would coincide with how wealthy the family was, the more rich in fabric and embellishment the clothing was, the more money the family would have.  An upper class ladies clothing would be covered in beading, lacing and other jewels, they would often change their dress up to six times a day.

Victorian Women

Most women in the victorian era were considered to be housewives.  A small amount of women would have certain occupations, but majority of the women would stay at home.  They would tend to their families and carry out household chores.  For the small percentage of women that worked, there jobs would have been maids, nurses, teachers, psychiatrists or social workers.  Other women would work from home as farm wives, selling produce from the farms such as milk and butter.

Women were required to obey men,  in most cases men would be in charge of all the finances.  Wealthy widows and spinsters were an exception and single women were left vulnerable for social disapproval and often pity.  Girls received far less education and their purpose was to marry and reproduce.  A lot of women lived in a state little better than slavery.  Women were left with not much of a choice but to marry, when they married, everything they owned and/or inherited would automatically belong to their husbands.  Even the rights to a women's body were given to the husband through law and the consecration of marriage, with women verbally agreeing to the vow of obeying her husband.   It wasn't until the late 20th Century that women had the right to omit that promise from their wedding vows.

In 1890, Florence Fenwick Miller (1854-1935), a midwife turned journalist, described women's positions succinctly:

Under exclusively man-made laws women have been reduced to the most abject condition of legal slavery in which it is possible for human beings to be held...under the arbitrary 

domination of another's will, and dependant for decent treatment exclusively on the goodness of heart of the individual master.  (From a speech to the National Liberal Club)

If women were not happy with their situations, there was almost nothing, without exceptional circumstances that they could do about it.  Divorce was not made legal for women until 1891.  

Victorian Hair - Ringlets & Buns

The hair is split into sections.  The first section is a centre, vertical parting combed back to the crown.  A horizontal parting is then taken to the ear on both sides, the hair is then clipped into the two formed front sections.

The second and third sections are formed by taking a further horizontal parting, using the above and the occipital bone as a guide.

The front two sections are then made into four sections by halving both using the horizontal parting as a guide.

The front sections are tonged with 1/2 inch sections from centre to ear on both sides, the hair is tonged in opposite directions.  The hair is secured using grips until the style is completed, as to prevent the curls from dropping.  This process is repeated on each of the four front sections.

The second section is split into three sections (these depend on the desired finished result).  The third section is spiral tonged working through vertical sections to create ringlets across the nape.

The middle three remaining sections are then rolled and pinned to create a bun like shape, this can be pushed, pinned and altered to suit the desired effect.

The pins at the front are then removed and pulled, teased and sprayed to create the final look.

Victorian hair - Crimping & Rolling

Hair is sectioned from side to side starting at the nape.  The hair is then crimped (using heated crimpers), starting at  the root, holding for 30 seconds and working out towards the mid-lengths and ends.

This process is continued working in an upwards motion towards the front hairline.  Every section of hair is carried out with the same procedure, until all the hair is completely crimped.

To carry out the rolls, the hair is then split into three sections.  To take the first section the hair is combed using a centre vertical parting back to the crown.  Using this section as a guide, the hair is then parted again horizontally to the ear on both sides making the first section.  The second section is formed using the horizontal part as a guide and overlapping the occipital bone, the third is the remaining hair between the occipital bone and the nape.

The first front section is split into three even sections.  The first middle, front section is pulled forward and rolled back using the fingers to help mould into the shape of a roll.  Once the hair is held in shape it is then pinned to hold it in place using grips.  Grips are placed underneath and inside the roll so they can not be seen.  This is repeated on both of the front side sections so the final result looks like one continual roll from ear to ear.

This process is then repeated on the middle and bottom sections in exactly the same manner.

What the Dickens..........?

Great expectations

Victorian Hairstyles

The young Queen Victoria

People often use the expression "a woman's crowning glory", this dates back to the victorian period.  It is quite ironic, as although this was a time of beauty and feminine mystery, women's hair was usually extremely damaged from the excessive use of hot irons.  Hair was burnt from the irons and gave off a rather peculiar smell that would be hidden with strong perfumes.  Hair would very often be reduced to a sheep like texture.  Hair styles were worn in a smooth, centre parted style right through the victorian era to the 1870's.  It was at this point that Parisian hairdresser M.Marcel Grateau created a new, natural looking wave by turning a curling iron the opposite way round. 

By 1872 the Marcel wave had been introduced, using a heated iron that imitated the natural curl of the hair.  The art of hairdressing was revolutionised all over the world.  The Marcel wave remained popular for over half a century, curly and waved hairpieces were also made and constructed in with the natural hair.

Marcel curling iron

Victorian Hair pieces

Curly hair was the sign of a softer nature, while women wearing straighter hairstyles were perceived as reserved, possibly even unrefined.  A ladies hair was thoroughly important in the effect she was going to have on society.  Reaching the age where the hair was long enough to be put up was a blossoming stage for a young woman.  Sometimes a plait would be fastened with a piece of ribbon added in, this would signify the coming of age event.

A woman's hair throughout the Victorian era was often perceived as a symbol of warm sexuality, beauty and security.  Lovers and family would often take a lock of their loved one's hair and when they passed away, it would be made into hair ornaments.  These ornaments would be in the form of jewellery most commonly know as the mourning broach.

However as there were often mixed sentiments towards the feelings of womanhood, some views were that hair was a dark and evil thing.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

It was seen to be this way on several ways......

• A source of power for a sorceress, or a source to lose power in womanhood
• Snake-like and poisonous
• A web to entangle
• An instrument with which to strangle       

In most forms of Victorian fiction, poetry and art, these motifs are repeated several times.  In many poems and arts a woman's hair is described as snake-like and doing her evil bidding.  Many evil connotations such as Waterhouse's La Belle Dame Sans Merci show women using their hair in a noose like way to strangle their unsuspecting victims.

There is also the story from Rossetti, that Lizzie Siddal's grave was dug up to retrieve poems, only to find that her hair had grown to completely fill the coffin.  This shows how widely diverse the opinion of men towards women was of their hair and their bodies.

La Belle Dame Cowper

Lillian's Corset

What the Dickens........?

Great expectations

Victorian Corsetry

Corsetry dates back thousands of years right throughout Europe.  The particular time when the corset became interesting and a part of everyday fashion, was the Victorian era.                                   

    

The 1830's saw the corset deemed as a medical necessity.  People used to think that that women where somewhat fragile and needed assistance in holding themselves upright.  Even the youngest of children aged three were made to wear the bodices.  By the time most of these girls hit their teenage years they could sit nor stand, without the aid of the reinforced, heavily boned corsets.  Internal organs where deformed due to the intense tightness and pressure, causing victorian women to faint and suffer from the vapors (an imbalance of the human organs causing illness).

Women were still deemed in this period to be the weaker sex, their minds and bodies were seen as weak.  The corset was believed to be morally and medically necessary.  The tighter the lacing the more virtuous you were seen to be, with the loose lacing the sign of a loose woman.  Women needed to be protected from fanciful men, by wearing the heavily layered clothing and corsets, getting undressed would be a long and trying task to any watchful eyes.

Working class women did not have to go through the torment of wearing tightly laced corsets.    

They were able to wear looser corsets and lighter clothes that weighed much less.  They needed to have more of a freedom so they were able to work and carry out daily household chores.

 

Questions have always been asked, How tight were the corsets laced?  There have been numerous reports that waists were between 18 and 14 inches, some even say 12 inches.  It is otherwise believed that most of these notes are nothing but fantasies and probably untrue. Corsets measured from museum collections from the period 1860 to 1910 measure between 20 and 22 inches.  There is no evidence to show how tightly people used to lace their corsets so they could easily be a few inches tighter.  Corsets were used to add shape to the body and also raise the bust.

Tight lacing was used, certain corset makers specialised in making the waist extremely small.  Men of the time began to develop a fetish for small waists, a fetish that was deemed acceptable.

                

Corsets have been used throughout centuries, you could say they were the wonderbra of today.  Even modern day women still wear corsets, although they are more likely to be part of sexy underwear, by companies such as Agent Provocateur.  Modern day women do not tend to layer their clothing like Victorian women did and would probably wear a corset on its own to go on a night out than put it underneath their outfit.  Celebrities such as madonna have worn corsets as part of their outlandish performances.

Madonna wearing Jean-Paul Gaultier

Agent Provocateur

Madonna wearing Jean-Paul Gaultier

Agent Provocatuer

There were many more cons than pros to wearing corsets.............................................

Cons:

Faints: Faints were often caused by getting sunstroke, but they were also enhanced by the difficulty women suffered from trying to breathe when wearing corsets.

Asphyxia: Breathing properly was extremely difficult.

Infertility: Because of the tightness of corsets women would suffer from continual miscarriages, with many of them becoming sterile for life.  Corsets wear not easy to wear when pregnant and many women would lose their babies.  Cases have been reported of babies with deformities and respiratory problems.

Sunstroke: Sunstroke was often caused by the amount of layers and the heaviness of the clothing in the hot temperatures.

Pros:

Corsets were used as a way of enhancing the hourglass figure and pushing up the bustline.