UNIT 8. WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN VICTORIAN FARMING
During the nineteenth century, women and children also worked in agriculture. They provided
cheap labour for the farmer. The table shows the sort of work undertaken by women and
children around the farm:
Source 1
Month
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Work
Sorting potatoes in fine weather, for women and big
boys and girls, generally not under 12 years old.
Sorting potatoes in fine weather, for women and big
boys and girls, generally not under 12 years old.
Sorting potatoes in fine weather, for women and big
boys and girls, generally not under 12 years old.
Picking twitch and setting potatoes for women and
children over 8 years old.
Weeding corn and potatoes.
Weeding corn and potatoes.
Weeding corn and potatoes.
Weeding corn and potatoes.
Corn harvest.
Corn harvest.
Potato harvest for women and children.
Potato harvest for women and children.
Sorting potatoes for women and big boys and girls,
generally not under 12 years old.
Sorting potatoes for women and big boys and girls,
generally not under 12 years old.
Women and children were often involved in tedious and backbreaking tasks, such as clearing
the ground of stones and weeds, spreading manure, hoeing turnips, and lifting potatoes. Their
work was arduous and they laboured in bitter winds, snow showers and rainstorms, often
spending long days in the fields, half frozen in wet clothes. At other times of the year, young
boys were employed to help the carter or ploughman, or to serve as mobile scarecrows in the
newly sown fields.
Except at haymaking and the corn harvest, when they followed the men, raking up the hay
and binding and stooking the cut corn, women and children worked in small groups, usually a
mother and her children working together.
The wages paid to women were about half the amount paid to the men, and varied with the
type of work done. More was paid for harvest work than for taking up potatoes, and less was
paid for weeding, planting potatoes and sorting potatoes. Children were paid even less, often
just 1d or 2d per day. Even so, the money earned by women and children made an important
contribution to the family income, especially when the men’s wages were so low. When
Queen Victoria came to the throne, the average weekly wage for a farmworker was about 13s.
This could be increased to around £1 if the woman and her children also worked in the fields.
At the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign many women and children were employed in
agriculture. By the end of the nineteenth century, fewer were working on the land. This was
because of:
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
The invention of labour-saving machinery, such as the reaper-binder.

Improvements in men’s wages.

The introduction of compulsory education for children and the raising of the schoolleaving age after the passing of the 1870 Education Act. Under this Act children over the
age of 12 years were permitted to attend school for part of the day and go to work for the
rest of it. This continued until 1918, when the school-leaving age was also raised to 14
years. Even so, many children still truanted to help on the farms at busy times.
Source 2
This source is taken from a novel by Thomas Hardy called Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which
was published in 1891. It gives an account of women working on a farm.
The swede-field in which she and her companion were set hacking was a stretch of a
hundred odd acres … The upper half of each turnip had been eaten off by the live-stock,
and it was the business of the two women to grub up the lower or earthy half of the root
with a hooked fork called a hacker, that it might be eaten also. Each leaf of the vegetable
having already been consumed, the whole field was in colour a desolate drab; it was a
complexion without features, as if a face, from chin to brow, should be only an expanse of
skin. The sky wore, in another colour, the same likeness; a white vacuity of countenance
with the lineaments gone. So, these two upper and nether visages confronted each other all
day long, the white face looking down on the brown face, and the brown face looking up
at the white face, without anything standing between them but the two girls crawling over
the surface of the former like flies.
Nobody came near them, and their movements showed a mechanical regularity; their
forms standing enshrouded in Hessian ‘wroppers’ – sleeved brown pinafores, tied behind
to the bottom, to keep their gowns from blowing about – scant skirts revealing boots that
reached high up the ankles, and yellow sheepskin gloves with gauntlets. The pensive
character which the curtained hood lent to their bent heads would have reminded the
observer of some early Italian conception of the two Marys.
They worked on hour after hour, unconscious of the forlorn aspect they bore in the
landscape, not thinking of the justice or injustice of their lot … In the afternoon the rain
came on again, and Marian said they need not work any more. But if they did not work
they would not be paid; so they worked on. It was so high a situation, this field, that the
rain had no occasion to fall, but raced along horizontally upon the yelling wind, sticking
into them like glass splinters till they were wet through. Tess had not known till now what
was really meant by that. There are degrees of dampness, and a very little is called being
wet through in common talk. But to stand working slowly in a field, and feel the creep of
rain-water, first in legs and shoulders, then on hips and head, then at back, front, and
sides, and yet to work on till the leaden light diminishes and marks that the sun is down,
demands a distinct modicum of stoicism, even of valour.
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A young girl working in a Victorian harvest field
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KEYWORDS
WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN VICTORIAN
FARMING
Cheap labour
scarecrow
truancy
women
weeding
binding
children
hoeing
school
low wages
long hours
harvest
1870 Education Act
Stone clearing
potatoes
Spreading manure
159
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Women and children in Victorian farming
Questions I want to ask
Answers
160
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Write down all the facts you known about
women in Victorian farming
161
Name ………………………………
Date ………………………………..
Write down all the facts you know about
children in Victorian farming
162
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Women and children in Victorian farming
weeding
labour
backbreaking
Education
women
compulsory
fields
children
stooking
hoeing
Victoria’s
wages
sown
truant
scare
In Queen _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ reign _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ worked on
farms, especially at busy times. Farmers often used women and children as
cheap _ _ _ _ _ _. They were paid very low _ _ _ _ _. Children would often play
_ _ _ _ _ _ from school to work on the land. Women and children did
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ tasks, such as
_ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ _, binding and
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Farmers used children to _ _ _ _ _ birds away from newly
_ _ _ _ fields. It was made _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ for children to go to school after
the passing of the 1870 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Act, but this did not stop many of them
continuing to work in the _ _ _ _ _ _.
163
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Study the picture
The girl is wearing
The other things in the picture are
What sort of person do you think this is?
Why do you think this?
164
Name ……………………………
Date …………………………….
Make a glossary of your keywords on women
and children in Victorian farming
KEYWORD
MEANING
165
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Women and children in Victorian farming
At the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign many women and children
worked on English farms. They needed to work on the land because
men’s wages were so low. Much labour was also needed at busy times
of the year. By the end of her reign there were fewer women and
children working in agriculture. This was because of:
1. The invention of
2. Improvements in
3. Compulsory
166
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
An interview with a child farmworker
Questions and answers
167
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Write a letter to a friend describing your work in the
fields
Dear
I am working on Mr Jordan’s
I have been
Then I was told to
The work is
The weather has been
Finally,
Yours
168
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Women and children in Victorian farming:
Source 2
169
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Women and children in Victorian farming:
Source 2
170
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Women and children in Victorian farming:
Source 2
171