How did the role of women change?
In Victorian times there was a different view on women. They were thought to be less intelligent than men and basically it was believed that they had a different nature. Their role was to find a partner and then reproduce. Their place was then at home where they had to care for the children and their husband.
By the early twentieth century, however, this view gradually started to change. This change took place for a variety of reasons. Firstly the Victorian view had been based on class. Rich, wealthy women were seen as angels of the home. Therefore they had a more important role than the 600.000 working-class women, and the 1.6 million female domestic servants. Another reason was that the number of female population had increased and there weren’t enough men for the women to marry. Also some women were starting to challenge the traditional view of women and started to go against the ‘man to command, woman to obey” theory. Woman began to slowly get involved in different jobs such as teaching and nursing and some female individuals were making a name for themselves. Girls received much less education from the State however the number of female graduates was increasing. Women started to demand equality and the best way in which this could be achieved was through vote. At that time no woman was able to vote. This caused the set of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, in 1897, and the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903. The aim of these was to win more rights and add importance and respect to the image of a woman. The more ‘militant’ suffragettes courted, used vandalism and went on hunger strikes to win great publicity. However, some politicians saw them as being excessively violent, reason for which, they should be left out of the political aspect of the country.
