In what ways, if any, were women better off in 1901 than they had been Essay

In what ways, if any, were women better off in 1901 than they had been in 1837 - Essay Example The ideology of separate spheres was a cultural philosophy of the separation of female and male roles. The line of demarcation was relatively simple. The public sphere was the domain of men and the domestic sphere was the domain of women. While this separation was not absolute, women had to contend with the cultural implications as well as the legal ramifications of having no real legal standing within the public sector. This meant without a male representative who could stand in her place to support her cause, and without that male having standing over her person, she was at the mercy of society and without much recourse to right wrongs committed against her. This ideology was not conducive to the needs of women as change began to roll through a variety of aspects of life. These changes begin to emerge during the reign of Queen Victoria and mark her reign with the advancement of society within Britain. In 1837 Queen Victoria became queen of England when her uncle, King William IV di ed. Queen Victoria was eighteen at the time of his death meaning that she was eligible to take the throne without a regent, which put her in the role as sovereign at a very young age. Her reign lasted for 63 years and seven months, during which time the world changed dramatically. A great number of advances occurred in industry, science, society, and military areas which helped civilization to move forward into a time of betterment for the citizens of England. However, it was the women’s movement that caused some of the larges changes during her reign than any other, despite the slow simmer that it held in the background of all of the other advancements. Women moved from being merely extensions of the males in their lives to full legal entities, capable of creating change within their personal circumstances through legal action. A woman became a full individual, no longer the possession of her husband, but the embodiment of her own ownership. During the early part of the 19th century, English women took up the cause of the abolishment of slavery, their voices ringing with American voices in the cause to free all men and women from ownership. During the course of this movement, a metaphor for female oppression began to emerge through the cause of slavery (Hall, Rendall, and McClelland 2000, p. 123). Eventually, the metaphor dropped away, leaving a women’s suffrage movement that was active in trying to gain roads towards allowing women the legal standing within society that would allow women to have more than the good graces of the males in their life through which to support their lives. Hall, Rendall, and McClelland (2000), state that â€Å"it was not†¦the drudgery of hard labour for women which constituted slavery for women, but the effects of long standing patriarchal oppression and its shaping of the submissive - or slavish - character of women† (p. 124). In 1846, the Westminster Review published an article that discussed the †˜fictions’ about the way in which literature was