WOMEN AND VICTORIAN VALUES, 1837-1910
WOMEN AND VICTORIAN VALUES, 1837-1910
In our series Women and Victorian Values, 1837-1910 we offer a wide selection of materials concerning the many roles played by women in the Victorian period.
During the Victorian and Edwardian periods society was underpinned by rigid moral and social values; with ideal forms of masculine and feminine behaviour. Moral respectability and domesticity were important ideologies of feminine behaviour. The ‘woman’s mission’ was that of supportive wife, dutiful daughter, and caring mother, and the woman’s domestic role was seen as an important and pivotal part of society. It was especially important that mothers should teach their children the values of Christian morality, which formed the foundation of society. For men society dictated they take the authoritative role as head of the household. The public sphere of society was controlled by male authority, with very little room for women.
In Part 5 of Women and Victorian Values we concentrate on the writings of sixteen Victorian authors from Sarah Adams to Charlotte Yonge. The texts, in the form of manuals, advice books, essays, pamphlets and novels, are written by authors from differing social classes, and reveal insights into many areas of Victorian social behaviour.
We begin the collection with The complete servant (1825) by Sarah and Samuel Adams, who combined their fifty years of practical experience as servants to write this guide. Written from the viewpoint of the working classes the manual contains information relating to the duties of all servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot boy.
Isabella Mary Beeton and Samuel Orchart Beeton produced a series of extremely popular household manuals which were widely read from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. These books were influential to the way Victorian women ran their households, and we have included ten titles in our collection. Isabella Beeton combines
In our series Women and Victorian Values, 1837-1910 we offer a wide selection of materials concerning the many roles played by women in the Victorian period.
During the Victorian and Edwardian periods society was underpinned by rigid moral and social values; with ideal forms of masculine and feminine behaviour. Moral respectability and domesticity were important ideologies of feminine behaviour. The ‘woman’s mission’ was that of supportive wife, dutiful daughter, and caring mother, and the woman’s domestic role was seen as an important and pivotal part of society. It was especially important that mothers should teach their children the values of Christian morality, which formed the foundation of society. For men society dictated they take the authoritative role as head of the household. The public sphere of society was controlled by male authority, with very little room for women.
In Part 5 of Women and Victorian Values we concentrate on the writings of sixteen Victorian authors from Sarah Adams to Charlotte Yonge. The texts, in the form of manuals, advice books, essays, pamphlets and novels, are written by authors from differing social classes, and reveal insights into many areas of Victorian social behaviour.
We begin the collection with The complete servant (1825) by Sarah and Samuel Adams, who combined their fifty years of practical experience as servants to write this guide. Written from the viewpoint of the working classes the manual contains information relating to the duties of all servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot boy.
Isabella Mary Beeton and Samuel Orchart Beeton produced a series of extremely popular household manuals which were widely read from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. These books were influential to the way Victorian women ran their households, and we have included ten titles in our collection. Isabella Beeton combines