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The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal
In Victorian England, the perception of girlhood arose not in isolation, but as one manifestation of the prevailing conception of femininity. Examining the assumptions that underlay the education and upbringing of middle-class girls, this book is also a study of the learning of gender roles in theory and reality. It was originally published in 1982.
The first two sections examine the image of women in the Victorian family, and the advice offered in printed sources on the rearing of daughters during the Victorian period. To illustrate the effect and evolution of feminine ideals over the Victorian period, the book's final section presents the actual experiences of several middle-class Victorian women who represent three generations and range, socioeconomically, from lower-middle class through upper-middle class.
The first two sections examine the image of women in the Victorian family, and the advice offered in printed sources on the rearing of daughters during the Victorian period. To illustrate the effect and evolution of feminine ideals over the Victorian period, the book's final section presents the actual experiences of several middle-class Victorian women who represent three generations and range, socioeconomically, from lower-middle class through upper-middle class.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published August 26, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 7, 2021
I very much enjoyed this. A comprehensive and interesting overview of Victorian girlhood, covering early, mid and late periods of the century, and using diaries to provide case studies of specific girls. It also quotes from manuals and periodicals (to explain societal views of raising girls and female education).
November 17, 2024
4.5 cuz Deborah is my girl.
Love any gal who takes the time to examine the history of puberty and the ideologies surrounding menstruation. <3
Love any gal who takes the time to examine the history of puberty and the ideologies surrounding menstruation. <3
February 25, 2009
Gorham’s groundbreaking history, which was the earliest to examine the lives of middle-class girls in Victorian England, is still the definitive work on the subject. Her definition of middle-class encompasses those families with men at highest levels “engaged in substantial business enterprises, in the liberal professions and in public administration” and those at its lowest levels, “clerks, and those employed in the minor retail trades” (3). ¾ of the middle class clustered at this lower end.
Part 1 “provides an overview of the middle-class girl’s experience and an examination of the ideological assumptions that underlay the Victorian perception of girlhood” (Preface, unpaginated). Chapter one presents general ideas about women and girls in the middle-class Victorian family, including the cult of domesticity and its function as a mediator of “the tensions that existed between the moral values of Christianity, with its emphasis on love and charity, and the values of capitalism, which asserted that he world of commerce should be pervaded by a spirit of competition and a recognition that only the fittest should survive” (4). The cult of domesticity imagines an ideal woman as one who was “willing to be dependent on men and submissive to them, and [who:] would have a preference for a life restricted to the confines of home. She would be innocent, pure, gentle and self-sacrificing. Possessing no ambitious strivings, she would be free of any trace of anger or hostility. More emotional than man, she was also more capable of self-renunciation” (4-5). Gorham argues that “an idealised view of the daughter’s role is a crucial feature of the cult of domesticity,” taking its power from the fact that certain features of the idealised view of womanhood could, in fact, more appropriately be applied to daughters than to wives” – childlike, asexual (6). The chapter also introduces the Victorian ideology of separate spheres, with the home idealized as separate from the economic pressures of public life. But since ¾ of middle class families did not earn enough to sustain the genteel norms set by the richest ¼, separate sphere ideology put pressure on the majority of middle-class women, for “while male competitiveness was approved of, the struggles for upward mobility waged by females were not overtly sanctioned. In reality, the duties of female members of the middle class did include the enhancement of the family’s social status, even though the ideology associated with the cult of domesticity barred them from the inevitable competitive struggles involved in that enterprise. These conflicts affected daughters, once they reached adolescence, as much as they affected wives” (11-12).
Chapter 2 provides demographic info on middle-class families, general information on Victorian childcare practices, and an account of the typical education, training, and employment of middle-class girls.
Chapter 3 presents both the positive and negative images of girlhood current literature and art in Victorian period, connecting them to their “roots in the structure of the Victorian middle-class family” (37). The “primary purpose [of such images:] was not to mould the individual girl into a feminine woman, but to contribute to the shaping of the world view of the Victorian middle class. But the images did, as well, form part of individual experience” (58). Positive images typically showed the girl in relationship, particularly in idealized, self-sacrificing relationships with fathers or brothers. Negative images of lazy girls, or husband-hunting girls, reflected upper and upper-middle class anxieties about class mobility, while negative images of the “modern girl,” which arose late in the period, reflected anxieties about the women’s movement. Positive images of the “modern girl” incorporated freedoms for girls while insisting that such freedoms would be given up when the girl found her true love and married.
Part 2 focuses on advice manuals, “tracing the influence of Victorian presuppositions about girlhood as they were worked out in concrete discussions of the problems of everyday life.” Chapter 4 discusses advice literature, aimed mainly at mothers, for how to care for young children. Sex roles were sharply differentiated during this period, but Victorian medical literature suggested that physical regimes for boys and girls should be similar. Girls should be allowed to play vigorously, and should be dressed in non-constricting clothing. Girls and boys shouldn’t be separated in the schoolroom or in play, although girls were taught domestic skills that their brothers weren’t. Gorham suggests that these similarities might stem from the fact that Victorians were “more certain than we are today about the innate differences between males and females” (80) – sex differences would emerge inevitably during puberty.
Chapter 5 focuses on advice lit by medical men about physical well-being of girls during puberty. Gorham notes how little menstruation was discussed in advice lit for girls, and how much it was discussed in medical manuals and in medical advice lit for mothers. “Victorian medical men believed that the onset of menstruation was the central event of female adolescence, that it had an effect on a girl’s future health in womanhood, and that it was also connected with her psychological and moral condition” (86). “Physicians generally held that the physical events of puberty triggered the psychical manifestations of femininity; thus, “any necessity of explaining why girls adopt the traits associated with femininity as they mature is removed” because it’s just natural, inevitable (86).
Chapter 6 examines advice literature about the “intellectual, practical, and emotional content” of the transformation from child to woman. In early & mid-Victorian advice literature, becoming adult women “meant accepting limits and restraints, and recognising male superiority” (101), and understanding that their ultimate purpose was to be “pleasant and useful companions to men, and responsible mothers to their children. In order to achieve this goal, girls were told that their attitude towards their studies was as important as anything they might learn” (102). Girls were told to take their studies seriously, but “never be interested in learning for its own sake. The mid-Victorian view was that there was a feminine and a masculine way of acquiring skills and knowledge, and that the feminine way represented a softened, more emotional, but also more constricted version of the masculine. Learning and achievement were seen as masculine attributes; however, middle-class girls, in order that they might become true complements to middle-class males, were to take part in these pursuits, but in a feminine way” (105). But “by the 1890s, if not before, a new model for the socialisation of adolescent middle-class girls was emerging, a model that allowed and even encouraged girls to be ambitious, and to develop their intellectual capacities without restraint” (106). Yet the “Angel in the House” role of wife and mother still encouraged, even by reformers (106).
Part 3 draws on biographical evidence to show how concepts of Victorian girlhood influenced actual Victorian girls. One chapter each is devoted to the early Victorian period, the mid-Victorian period, and the late Victorian period. Each chapter gives mini biographies of the girlhoods of three to six famous women. Not much new ground is broken in this section; the biographies are mostly summaries of previous authors’ work, with brief opening sections linking them to the overall trends noted in the previous two sections of the book.
It’s surprising to me that no new histories of Victorian girlhood have been written since Gorham’s. Has feminist historiography changed so little in the past 25 years that a new look at this material (as well as more extensive analyses of the lives of the less well known Victorian girls/women) isn’t warranted?
Part 1 “provides an overview of the middle-class girl’s experience and an examination of the ideological assumptions that underlay the Victorian perception of girlhood” (Preface, unpaginated). Chapter one presents general ideas about women and girls in the middle-class Victorian family, including the cult of domesticity and its function as a mediator of “the tensions that existed between the moral values of Christianity, with its emphasis on love and charity, and the values of capitalism, which asserted that he world of commerce should be pervaded by a spirit of competition and a recognition that only the fittest should survive” (4). The cult of domesticity imagines an ideal woman as one who was “willing to be dependent on men and submissive to them, and [who:] would have a preference for a life restricted to the confines of home. She would be innocent, pure, gentle and self-sacrificing. Possessing no ambitious strivings, she would be free of any trace of anger or hostility. More emotional than man, she was also more capable of self-renunciation” (4-5). Gorham argues that “an idealised view of the daughter’s role is a crucial feature of the cult of domesticity,” taking its power from the fact that certain features of the idealised view of womanhood could, in fact, more appropriately be applied to daughters than to wives” – childlike, asexual (6). The chapter also introduces the Victorian ideology of separate spheres, with the home idealized as separate from the economic pressures of public life. But since ¾ of middle class families did not earn enough to sustain the genteel norms set by the richest ¼, separate sphere ideology put pressure on the majority of middle-class women, for “while male competitiveness was approved of, the struggles for upward mobility waged by females were not overtly sanctioned. In reality, the duties of female members of the middle class did include the enhancement of the family’s social status, even though the ideology associated with the cult of domesticity barred them from the inevitable competitive struggles involved in that enterprise. These conflicts affected daughters, once they reached adolescence, as much as they affected wives” (11-12).
Chapter 2 provides demographic info on middle-class families, general information on Victorian childcare practices, and an account of the typical education, training, and employment of middle-class girls.
Chapter 3 presents both the positive and negative images of girlhood current literature and art in Victorian period, connecting them to their “roots in the structure of the Victorian middle-class family” (37). The “primary purpose [of such images:] was not to mould the individual girl into a feminine woman, but to contribute to the shaping of the world view of the Victorian middle class. But the images did, as well, form part of individual experience” (58). Positive images typically showed the girl in relationship, particularly in idealized, self-sacrificing relationships with fathers or brothers. Negative images of lazy girls, or husband-hunting girls, reflected upper and upper-middle class anxieties about class mobility, while negative images of the “modern girl,” which arose late in the period, reflected anxieties about the women’s movement. Positive images of the “modern girl” incorporated freedoms for girls while insisting that such freedoms would be given up when the girl found her true love and married.
Part 2 focuses on advice manuals, “tracing the influence of Victorian presuppositions about girlhood as they were worked out in concrete discussions of the problems of everyday life.” Chapter 4 discusses advice literature, aimed mainly at mothers, for how to care for young children. Sex roles were sharply differentiated during this period, but Victorian medical literature suggested that physical regimes for boys and girls should be similar. Girls should be allowed to play vigorously, and should be dressed in non-constricting clothing. Girls and boys shouldn’t be separated in the schoolroom or in play, although girls were taught domestic skills that their brothers weren’t. Gorham suggests that these similarities might stem from the fact that Victorians were “more certain than we are today about the innate differences between males and females” (80) – sex differences would emerge inevitably during puberty.
Chapter 5 focuses on advice lit by medical men about physical well-being of girls during puberty. Gorham notes how little menstruation was discussed in advice lit for girls, and how much it was discussed in medical manuals and in medical advice lit for mothers. “Victorian medical men believed that the onset of menstruation was the central event of female adolescence, that it had an effect on a girl’s future health in womanhood, and that it was also connected with her psychological and moral condition” (86). “Physicians generally held that the physical events of puberty triggered the psychical manifestations of femininity; thus, “any necessity of explaining why girls adopt the traits associated with femininity as they mature is removed” because it’s just natural, inevitable (86).
Chapter 6 examines advice literature about the “intellectual, practical, and emotional content” of the transformation from child to woman. In early & mid-Victorian advice literature, becoming adult women “meant accepting limits and restraints, and recognising male superiority” (101), and understanding that their ultimate purpose was to be “pleasant and useful companions to men, and responsible mothers to their children. In order to achieve this goal, girls were told that their attitude towards their studies was as important as anything they might learn” (102). Girls were told to take their studies seriously, but “never be interested in learning for its own sake. The mid-Victorian view was that there was a feminine and a masculine way of acquiring skills and knowledge, and that the feminine way represented a softened, more emotional, but also more constricted version of the masculine. Learning and achievement were seen as masculine attributes; however, middle-class girls, in order that they might become true complements to middle-class males, were to take part in these pursuits, but in a feminine way” (105). But “by the 1890s, if not before, a new model for the socialisation of adolescent middle-class girls was emerging, a model that allowed and even encouraged girls to be ambitious, and to develop their intellectual capacities without restraint” (106). Yet the “Angel in the House” role of wife and mother still encouraged, even by reformers (106).
Part 3 draws on biographical evidence to show how concepts of Victorian girlhood influenced actual Victorian girls. One chapter each is devoted to the early Victorian period, the mid-Victorian period, and the late Victorian period. Each chapter gives mini biographies of the girlhoods of three to six famous women. Not much new ground is broken in this section; the biographies are mostly summaries of previous authors’ work, with brief opening sections linking them to the overall trends noted in the previous two sections of the book.
It’s surprising to me that no new histories of Victorian girlhood have been written since Gorham’s. Has feminist historiography changed so little in the past 25 years that a new look at this material (as well as more extensive analyses of the lives of the less well known Victorian girls/women) isn’t warranted?
April 2, 2019
What a wonderful study from Gorham. I've been reading this while working on a research project and have loved every page. The journal entries and letters were particularly insightful.
October 2, 2015
3.5 rounded up. Gives good historical background, but I wish it used more examples, or at least quoted from her sources.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews