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Victorian Women Writers:
Catalysts for Gender Role Change
Zoe Lucas
Victorian Women Writers
Professor Danger
November 23, 2020
I have neither given or received, nor have I tolerated others’ use of unauthorized aid.
Zoe Lucas
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According to a work done by Thomas Gisbone, an English Priest, in 1794, “The sphere of
domestic life, the sphere in which female exertion is chiefly occupies, and female excellence is
best displayed… than is to be found in widely different professions and employments into which
private advantage and public good require that men should be distributed” (Gisbone 4).
Essentially, the female belongs in the home, and this was the widely held view of the era. The
women’s main roles were childbearing, rearing, and care; household duties; and as a woman of
society, knowing how to play music, sing, and entertain appropriately. These tasks meant they
were completely dependent on their husbands and families financially and in all other aspects of
life. They were afforded very few options in anything about their life, they were expected to
obey. Men on the other hand, were expected to act as heads of the household and be the
breadwinners for the family, but had the luxury of comfort made by their wives. These gender
roles are obvious in period novels like Jane Eyre and Ruth Hall, but it is now clear that aspects
of these books and other works acted as catalysts for social change by showing the abilities of
women and the ridiculousness of the expectations. Although the unbalanced gender roles in the
Victorian era left women forced into familial and household roles, dependent on their husbands,
cries for justice can be heard by different women through their written works.
Jane Eyre is an atypical novel because it starts off so promising from the feminist lens.
She grows up an orphan, unloved and treated harshly. She studies hard at Lowood, where she
first realizes her potential, driving her to work hard in her academics to give herself better
opportunities later in life. She exhibits ambition by advertising herself to find work, “With
earliest day, I was up: I had my advertisement written,” and although this was driven by
necessity, she is able to successfully land a job as a governess to support herself (Bronte 103). It
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is true that being a governess was deemed an acceptable role for women in this time period, but
the fact that she is working at all, as an educated woman nonetheless, shows her innate drive.
Once she decides to leave that job, she goes out, fending for herself, but the limited
opportunities for women left her dependent on a kind family who takes her in, financially
supported by, no surprise, a male head of house. Then, she inherits a large sum of money from a
recently deceased uncle, and it is hard to say whether Bronte’s choice to include this in the novel
is progressive or follows the trend of the age. On one hand, Jane inherits it from a man, which
reinforces the dependency. On the other hand, she in now economically independent, which
gives her more choices in how she spends the rest of her life. Had she not inherited that money,
she may have been more inclined to marry her cousin when he proposes since she would not
have had any other financial resources. Since she does, she is free to choose to return to
Rochester, her one true love.
The ending is disappointing because after fighting for the whole novel by educating
herself, working, and tactically supporting herself, she ends up not advancing her position as she
could with her qualifications. Instead, she ends up in domestic bliss, serving her husband and
bearing his children. It is her choice to pursue this lifestyle, and choices should be respected and
considered progressive. Contrarily, she may have wasted her potential. She probably could have
become more entrepreneurial by using her academic background to open schools, or buy them,
and become a better headmaster or funder than she was exposed to as a child.
Other writings from this era started to critique these gender roles. One exemplary piece is
“The Model Husband,” which was one of seven Fanny Fern articles written for the newspaper
the Olive Branch. The article cynically describes how the ideal husband should act to best benefit
their wives, which serves to demonstrate how much women accommodated to men. Fern
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implicitly critiques men for having little regard for their wives’ comfort as enforced by the
patriarchal society. A passage that shows this is, "If the children in the next room scream in the
night, he don't expect his wife to take an air-bath to find out what is the matter. He has been
known to wear Mrs. Smith's night-cap in bed, to make the baby think he is its mother" (Fern
216). Even though the passage is light-hearted, it reveals the deeper truth about the thanklessness
in everyday tasks that women were expected to perform. It can be inferred from sources like
these that women were aware of the unfairness of this gender balance. Women like Fern who
spoke against these societal roles were considered radical but became important catalysts for
gender equality.
Fern wrote Ruth Hall four years after “The Model Husband,” which was an even more
radical piece since it called for financial autonomy for women. Much like Jane Eyre, Ruth Hall is
driven by necessity to find work once her husband passes away. Also like Jane Eyre, Ruth
struggles to find work since women were not supposed to be the working ones. After getting
rejected repeatedly, she finds a publisher willing to hire her, “the remuneration was not what
Ruth had hoped, but it was at least a beginning, a stepping-stone” (Fern 125). Sure enough, Ruth
writes day and night, and her fame and fortune grow directly, eventually growing enough for her
to invest. Ruth Hall was a radical heroine since she showed that women could support
themselves, in fact, do more than just support themselves. She showed that women were capable,
competent, and ambitious, and they can climb the ladder just like men. This served as a good
example for young girls across the nation, and was a key, inspiring novel in the following
feminist movements.
Alcott’s sensation novel, “Behind a Mask,” was a striking piece for the time that follows
the trend of a strong heroine. The predominant difference I found between Alcott’s text and the
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other texts is her characterization of Jean Muir. In the other novels we read, the main females,
while ambitious and successful, are not malicious or conniving. Jane Eyre overcomes her poor
upbringing by using an education to get a job and fight to find happiness. Ruth Hall fights off
poverty by persevering and becoming a writer to support her daughters. Nig works as hard as she
can to eventually get away from her abusive family. All of these women overcome adversity and
fight for better lives, but all are ladylike and fairly demure at the end of the day. On the other
hand, Jean Muir disguises herself as a sweet, young governess with the intention to make the
men of the manor fall in love with her so she can take over the estate. I believe Alcott made Jean
Muir so cunning in order to subvert the patriarchal society of the Victorian Era and prove that
women have the potential to be dangerous, independent, and intelligent, too. The story reflects
the constraints on women during the period, and starkly contrasts with other books from the
period and even Alcott’s other works.
While gender roles were clearly unbalanced in the 19th century, female Victorian writers
were working to instate change for a more egalitarian society. They started normalizing women
out of traditional household roles and into more powerful, working class roles. These women
sparked a revolution that went through the 20th century in the women’s suffrage movement, the
first two feminist movements, and into the 21st century with another wave of neo-feminism.
Writing done by Victorian women was more than just a way to earn money or a pastime, it was a
catalyst for societal change.
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Annotated Bibliography
Alcott, Louisa May. Behind a Mask. Gutenberg Files, August 2005, Ebook.
This sensation novel tells the story of a con woman who cunningly takes over an estate. I
used this novel to demonstrate how Victorian women writers wrote strong heroines to
show that women can possess traditionally masculine characteristic.s
Brontë, Charlotte and Stevie Davies. Jane Eyre. Penguin Random House UK, Penguin Classics,
2006.
This novel tells the story of a woman who rises from a rough childhood to work her way
through life and eventually find love. I used this novel to show the potential women have,
and how frequently the potential was wasted in this era.
Fern, Fanny, and Joyce W. Warren. Ruth Hall: and Other Writings. New Brunswick, New
Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 1986.
This novel tells the story of a woman who becomes a successful writer out of tragedy. The
other writings cheekily remark on the roles of men and women. I used these works to show
how difficult it was for women to simply go about their days with the instated gender roles.
Gisborne, Thomas. An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex. Gale Ecco, Print Editions,
2010.
As a religious man, Gisborne attributed the importance of staying within gender roles to
the duty as a Christain. He encouraged subordination in women and assertion in men. In a
letter to her sister, Austen reportedly wrote ``’I am glad you recommended “Gisborne”,
for having begun, I am pleased with it, and I had quite determined not to read it’.”
Although Gisborne praises woman’s capacity for ‘sprightliness and vivacity’, ‘quickness
of perception’ and ‘fertility of invention,’ a majority of the book does not support the
ambitious women. For example, he believes novels corrupt women, implying that an
educated woman is not as valuable as a modest one. I used this primary source to
demonstrate how roles were imposed societally.