Enquiry overview

1. Enquiry 5To what extent did women have different views, aims and aspirations throughout the nineteenth century?

2. Enquiry overview Lesson 1: Were all Victorian women the same? Lesson 2: What if you had to work? Lesson 3: Step by step Lesson 4: Did all women want the vote? Lesson 5: How did women get the vote? Outcome activity: Write an extended answer as to how divided Victorian women were and its impact on the campaign for women’s suffrage.

3. Lesson 2What if you had to work?

4. Lesson 2 overview • Content covered in the lesson: • Women at work, from the 1851 census. • What kinds of jobs did single women do? • What kinds of jobs did married women do? • What kinds of jobs did widowed women do?

5. To what extent did women have different views, aims and aspirations throughout the nineteenth century? Recap: In what ways were Victorian women similar? In what ways were Victorian women different?

6. Women at work, from the 1851 census NB: Probably understates total women workers. Q: Which jobs did most women work in? Q: Which jobs did fewest women work in? Q: Are there typical ‘women’s jobs’, according to the census? Q: What does the census data tell us about the idea of ‘separate spheres’ for men and women?

7. Activity 1: How did the Victorians see themselves?

8. Activity 2: What kinds of jobs did single women do? Search the database field ‘marital status’ using the term ‘single’. Q: What kinds of jobs did single women do? Make a list. Are there any jobs you’ve never heard of? Look these up to find out what they were. Q: Which jobs might be working-class women’s jobs? Q: Which ones might be middle-class women’s jobs? How can you tell? Use the database to sort ‘single’ women’s jobs by the date field. Q: Do the types of jobs change later in the nineteenth century? In what way?

9. Activity 3: What about married women? Search the database field ‘marital status’ using the term ‘married’. Q: What kinds of jobs did married women do? Make a list. Again, look up any jobs listed that you don’t know. Q: Which jobs might be working-class women’s jobs? Q: Which ones might be middle-class women’s jobs? How can you tell? Many married women defined their jobs as ‘wife of...’. Q: What does that tell us about the status of working women?

10. What kinds of jobs did married women do? I get up around 5 a.m., lay the fire, clean the grate, make the tea and wake my husband. I organise the children and take them to a baby-minder on my way to work, where I arrive with my husband at 6 a.m. After a 10-hour day in the factory, I come home, light the fire to heat the bath water, collect the children and fetch the pies for tea. If it’s pay day, I go shopping for the week’s food and pay the rent man, the union man and the death insurance man. My next job is to blacklead and polish the grate in the living room before it gets too hot. Then I go upstairs to make the beds. After I’ve done that, it’s time to clean the flags and bath the children. Then I prepare my husband’s supper and the breakfast for the morning. Sometimes I fall asleep over my evening meal. A Lancashire cotton worker’s description of her dayin 1892.

11. Activity 4: What kinds of jobs did widows do? Search the database field ‘marital status’ using the term ‘widow’. Q: What kinds of jobs did widowed women do? Don’t forget to find out about any jobs you don’t know. Q: Which jobs might be working-class women’s jobs? Q: Which ones might be middle-class women’s jobs? How can you tell? Q: Are the jobs carried out by widows similar to those of single and married women, or different?

12. To what extent did women have different views, aims and aspirations throughout the nineteenth century? Plenary: What kinds of jobs did Victorian women do? Having looked closely at the database and the sources, how essential was it for many women to work? What kinds of jobs were available to them? How easy was it for unmarried middle-class women to support themselves? How well-paid were the jobs open to them? What do you now think about the idea of ‘separate spheres’?