Women in the late 19th century

Social Structure of Mass Society• The Upper Class

• 5 percent of the population that controlled 30 to 40 percent of wealth• Alliance of wealthy business elite and traditional aristocracy

• The Middle Classes• Stratification: Upper middle class, middle middle-class, lower middle-class

(petite bourgeoisie) • Professionals, white-collar workers, traders• Middle class values came to dominate society and culture

• The Lower classes• 80 percent of the European population• Agricultural workers• Urban working class stratification: Skilled, semiskilled, unskilled workers

Social Structure of Mass Society• The Middle Classes

• Stratification: Upper middle class, middle middle-class, lower middle-class (petite bourgeoisie)

• Professionals, white-collar workers, traders• Middle class values came to dominate society and culture

Upper Middle Class Professionals in law, medicine, relatively well-to-do industrialists

Middle Middle Class “White collared” workers such as sales reps, bankers, bookkeepers, bank tellers, department store clerks

Lower Middle Class small shopkeepers and traders, more prosperous peasants that provided services

Social Structure of Mass Society• The Lower classes

• 80 percent of the European population• Agricultural workers, sharecroppers• Urban working class stratification: Skilled, semiskilled, unskilled workers

“Working Class”

Skilled Aristans like cabinet makers, printing, jewelry making

Semiskilled Carpenters, brick layers, factory makers

Unskilled Largest group, day laborers, worked infrequently for low wages, domestic servants

Social Structure of Mass Society

The elite, the urban poor and the rural poor

The Middle Class

• Commercial development cleared out slums and replaced them with centers of commerce

• Raised prices on urban dwellings• As a result, middle class & working class

had to look elsewhere four housing suburbs

• Upper Middle class sometimes lived in splendor that rivaled aristocrats

WH Smith – wealthy middle class (opened railway news

stands)

The Middle Class Family

• The family was the central feature of middle class life

• Men = family income Women = domestic/child care• Domestic servants enabled

middle class mothers to spend more time with children and on leisure

• Started limiting family size

The Middle Class Family

• Family togetherness at holidays

The Middle Class Family

• Changing views of children – unique beings, not small adults

• Entitled to a long childhood and activities with other children

• How they were raised affected how they turned out, mothers were an important force

• Children’s games, toys

The Middle Class Family

• Sons focused on activities that built character and “manliness”

• Boy Scouts• Sports

The Working Class Family• Higher wages meant by the end

of the 19th century, many working class women could afford to stay home

• Like Middle Class, many families started limiting family size

• Children viewed as dependents rather than potential wage owners in many families

• Reduced work hours meant more time to spend with children

Late Nineteenth Century Women

Barriers for Women in Late 19th Century

• Property – until last quarter of century, most women in Europe could not own property; everything was in their husband's name –

• Only Britain changed this in 1882 with the Married Women's Property Act

• Family law – divorce was difficult to obtain, men had legal control of the children, and contraception and abortion were illegal

• Education• Could not attend universities until late 19th

century• Lack of secondary education for women• Women with professional jobs were considered

radicals and faced discrimination

New Employment for Women

• New jobs – included secretaries, clerks, and shop assistants – still paid low wages

• Leaving labor force – married women work less and less due to:

• Industries preferring unmarried women• Men living longer• Social expectations of married women (the

less a woman worked, the more prosperous the family appeared)

Women working in the London Central Telephone Exchange. The invention of the telephone opened new employment opportunities for women.

Middle Class Women

• Domesticity – oversaw virtually all domestic management and child care

• Family - due to contraceptives and the cost of having children, had smaller families

• Religion – assured the religious instruction of their children and prayer was a major part of their daily lives

• Charity – worked with poor youth, poor young women, schools for infants, and societies for visiting the poor

Working-Class Women

• Putting-out system – manufacturer would purchase material, then put it out to the tailors

• Subject to layoffs when demand for products slowed

• Had low wages and subject to exploitation

Working-class women were often portrayed as violating middleclass norms of good “feminine” behavior.

In this 1886 etching, tobacco workers in a factory protest the dismissal of one of their colleagues.

Poverty & Prostitution• Women displaced in an overcrowded

work force turned to prostitution• Most large 19th-century cities had legal

prostitution• Usually low-skill workers with little

education; customers were working class men

Rise of Feminism

• Obstacles – many women did not support the feminist movement because…

• They were sensitive to class and economic interests

• They cared more about national unity and patriotism

• Religious women were uncomfortable with radical secularists

Rise of Feminism

• Women's suffrage in Britain – suffrage – the movement for women to vote

• Women given right to vote in Britain in 1918• British suffrage movement was highly

influential in the United States

• Political feminism – women granted right to vote in France (after World War II) and Germany (1919)

Suffrage in Great Britain

1830-60

• Began with Chartism• Resolution for female suffrage presented

in House of Lords

1860-1903

• Little progress because of ineffective tactics

• Parlor meetings• Petitions sent to Parliament• Politely questioned candidates

1860-90• Resolution for woman

suffrage presented in House of Commons

• Isle of Man gave vote to women who owned property

Women’s Organizations

• 1897—National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) formed by local British societies

• 1903—Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)

• Emmaline Pankhurst and her daughters• First goal—recruit more working class women

1903

• New methods• Outdoor meetings• Interrupted government speakers at

public gatherings and demanded their views

• Campaigned against anti-suffrage candidates

• Marched in parades• Organized & recorded membership• Sought support of working class women

October, 1905

• 2 women heckled PM during speech• Refused to leave• Arrested for assault• Refused to pay fine so sent to

prison• Women became more militant

• Attacked MP’s physically• Poured acid into mailboxes

July, 1909

• Imprisoned suffragette staged hunger strike

• Released so that she would not become a martyr

• Other women adopted this strategy

• Authorities force-fed them

When advocates of women's suffrage went on hunger strike, they were forcibly fed in prison. When they refused to open their mouths, feeding tubes were inserted into their nostrils, as in this 1909 photograph taken in Holloway Prison in London.Suffragette being force-fed with the nasal tube in Holloway Prison, 1909

Emmeline Pankhurst (1857–1928) was frequently arrested for forcibly advocating votes for British women.

1913

By summer 1914

• Over 1,000 suffragettes had been imprisoned for destroying property

August, 1914

• England declared war on Germany

• NUWSS and WSPU suspended political activity until war ended

• Helped war effort• Govt released suffragettes from

prison• Emmaline Pankhurst called

on unions to let women work in male-dominated industries

1919

• Representation of the People Act Women over 30 received the vote

1928

• Equal Franchise Act Voting rights for men and women were equalized (21)