Work1. Introduction Work has usually been defined as paid employment outside the home. However historians such as Dorothy Thompson have argued that 'much of the actual work done every day has always gone into the basic subsistence of the family'. The home-based, non-waged work of child rearing, cleaning, preparation of food, maintenance of the home and garden and care of the family increasingly became allocated to women during the nineteenth century. However as the nineteenth century progressed women also became more conspicuous in the workplace.
2. Middle Class Women An influential Victorian poem by Coventry Patmore entitled 'The Angel of the House' implied that the ideal woman was not only married and a mother but also remained confined to the domestic sphere where she could provide a comfort and support to her husband and a moral influence on their children. This model may have reflected upper and middle class homes in the mid-Victorian period.
© John Hargreaves, 2003 |
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