Topic > Women's Lives in the Victorian Age - 1128

Women, although often not as physically powerful as men, have long been a strong force in society, especially in the Victorian age, where they gave clear contributions in ways that have seen positive effects to this day. Prominent, among many other successful women of the Victorian age who departed from the usual assigned roles in society's hierarchy, were Florence Nightingale, Madam Curie, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Victorian age is seen as a time of questioning the traditional role of women in society as established by nature and religious tradition. These questions and the search for more independent roles in society from the norm led to the arrival of a much debated phenomenon called “New Women” (Besant 1583). Although the Victorians began to raise questions about what the status of women in society really was and their traditional roles as caretakers of the family and home, they many times thwarted the idea that women could make these decisions for themselves or that there could be independently. of a man. Making decisions for women and considering them only as an object of worship or an "angel in the house" was shameful for them because they didn't even have dominion over themselves and furthermore this was just a way of not allowing women to acquire a higher status. high. assuming that women were not capable of a man's intellectuality (“Woman Question” 1581). In the Victorian age, women were considered an object of worship rather than considering them an intellectual equal to man. The Victorian woman did not have many choices in her life, but the “woman question” led to many of a woman's capabilities being realized outside of her home and led many women to overstep the boundaries of their profession. means of paper... of their homes, but when they began to reflect on the question of what the role of women really was, it led to many prominent women gaining fame and contributing greatly to society. It was this awakening and awareness among men and women that women could also make a great contribution and be independent from men that helped erase the great burden of hierarchical disparity and brought them closer towards equal status. Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2006. Print.Parkman, Francis. "The question of women again." The North American Review 0130. 278(1880):17.Cornell.Web.18 February 2012Tyrrell, Alex. “Samuel Smiles and the Woman Question in Early Victorian Britain.” Journal of British Studies 39.2 (2000): 185-86. Academic research completed. Network. February 18. 2012.