The life of a woman such as could be imagined in the Anglo-Saxon world around 1840. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the first daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. She was viewed as an ideal Gibson Girl Library of Congress and Public Domain Source: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/gibson.htm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Pen and ink drawing of the Gibson Girl by illustrator Sarah Kaplan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Ideal Victorian Women and Reality

From Domestic Goddess to the Gibson Girl

In the first hundred fifty years of this nation's history the "ideal" image of womanhood was defined by the individual culture a young woman was raised in. Her ethnic background, religion, social status, and geographical location defined for her in large part what the desirable attributes of womanhood were.

The Victorian period 1837 -1901 gave rise to a broad middle class and an increase in national media in the form of widely available books and national publications. The art as well as the literature of the time gave rise to a more national definition of what the ideal women was that was widely accepted and seen as a standard by which younger women tried to imitate.

The growing Victorian middle class lived life differently than the vast majority of people who still craved a living on the family farm. This was a social class that did not have to produce endlessly all the things necessary for their daily survival. The increase in cheap immigrant labor available made it possible for the middle class housewife to free herself from time consuming domestic duties to pursue other interests that revolved around the family.

Unlike her farm housewife counterpart she did not labor next to her husband on the family farm, her domestic sphere was completely separate from the public working life of her husband.

Her social relationships and domestic obligations did not include an extended family and few close friends like that of her counter part in the farming community. She was free to pursue religious interests and domestic interests within organized groups. The serious focus of her life did not have to be stretched beyond her own front porch.

The life of the middle class housewife was called the "cult of domesticity " and was widely promoted as the ideal womanhood in newly created women's magazines, advice books, and religious publications. Godey's Lady's Book is a good example of a publication that promoted the ideal of Victorian womanhood. It not only promoted the fashion of the day, but promoted the ideals of Victorian womanhood. These ideals were Piety, Purity, Submissiveness, and Domesticity.

The ideal of piety came from the idea that women were more innately moral than men and in charge of forming the early spiritual values of the children. Religion was seen as a positive way for women to occupy their minds and impact social change in society. It was not seen as normal or respectable for women to work for social change by an organized political activity. Women could strive to change life for the poor and fight the vices of drinking under the guise of piety. Men too were expected to religious but never overly unless they were members of the clergy.

Purity was of utmost importance to a young Victorian girl. Girls had no practical knowledge of their bodies or reproductive system. They were taught that Virginity was their ultimate gift to their husband on their wedding night. Normal women were thought to be asexual and sex was a marital obligation. It was seen as a Victorian wife's job to preserve the health of her husband by giving him some sex but not to wear him out or cause illness by overly sexing him. She was the moral keeper of the bedroom. Men were expected to maintain a level of sexual purity and monogamy but slip ups were expected and the wife was obligated to help save a straying husband from himself.

The ideal of submissiveness was what had been expected all along in American protestant culture. The order of things was God, husband, wife, and underage children. Victorian's added romantic charm to submissiveness with the ideal that women were physically weak and sweet natured .They needed the protection of a man. No respectable farm wife would have believed such things as she many times did the work of a man and housewife. Clothing of the Victorian housewife was so restrictive it would have made any truly physical work impossible. The tendency of women who wore tight corsets to faint simply feed the myth of a women's weak constitution.

The last ideal was that a woman was to cultivate domesticity. The good wife was the goddess of hearth and made a home where her hard working husband could find refuge from his hectic public life. The home and the children were to be in order when the husband arrived home. Women had the greatest influence and sphere of power in her own home. A good wife was frugal but maintained a peaceful and fashionable home that her husband's callers would enjoy being in. Home management was an art as many times wives had to handle the affairs of any hired help and the under aged children in the household. She was to do this in a manner that looked effortless to show her happiness in her domestic position.

Hired help for the farm wife meant hired farm labor. These were men she had to sometimes cook and clean for in addition to her own husband. The task of the farm housewife was to be sure all the farm workers were fed and to tend to her own farm related tasks sometimes while supervising young children. The appearance of the home for social impression would have been the last thing on a Victorian farm wife's mind.

A very personal account of the daily life of an American farm wife can be found a http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/farmwife.htm. Toward the end of the Victorian period a new type of ideal womanhood that set the foundation for a more independent and intellectually equal view of women developed. This women was still ridiculously romanticized, but she was seen as educated and having interests outside of the home and church. The new ideal of womanhood was known as the Gibson girl.

The Gibson Girl was a media icon created by satirist and artist Charles Dana Gibson. This model of perfect felinity lasted from the late 1890's to the start of the First World War The Gibson Girl was socially active . She was pictured attending college and swimming with friends at the beach. The Gibson girl activitely sought her suitors and was innocently, yet somewhat sexually teasing to the opposite sex. She had a public life and young womanhood and would not be expected to part with a degree personal freedom until marriage.

The Gibson girl was engaged in fun or the arts. She was seen as being to cheerful and busy to bother with such drab issues of things like suffrage. The Gibson Girl was a tamed down version of the later flapper girl. Beauty was of utmost important to her and she always sported the most complicated of up dos and she was a slave to current fashion.

Again the late Victorian version of Barbie was not a realistic ideal for a young women growing up on a farm. She would not have the financial means or time to maintain the lifestyle of a society girl. Still the Gibson Girl was seen as one who bettered her mind and selection of mates by attending college. This ideal girl may have inspired many farm girls to seek life outside the farm and attend at least a teacher's college.

Today the Victorian ideals of womanhood seem romantic and repressive ,but they probably only reflected the reality of some women's lives. The strong and thoughtful farm wife who saw herself as a partner( sometimes with bitterness) in the family farm was probably more of a reality and role model for the majority of young women. Urban immigrant women did not have the luxery of being housewives and many times worked in the homes of the middle class or factories to ensure the families survival. These real life role models showed young women that women were more important to society than just providing a domestic sanctuary for men.

Victorian Lives

Monday, September 15, 2014