Background

An English medical text of the time reads, "Breaking a maiden's seal is one of the
best antidotes for one's ills.
Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred
Coverture was what Abigail Adams was talking about in her famous Remember the
Ladies letter to John.
https://www.nwhm.org/blog/coverture-the-word-you-probably-don%E2%80%99tknow-but-should/

Home
"As a child, I scribbled; and my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for
recreation, was to 'write stories.'" (Shelly)
After school she was expected to marry well and live the life of a lady. (Anderson)
In Pride & Prejudice the snobbish Caroline Bingley lists the skills required by any
young lady who considers herself accomplished:
Young Florence Nightingale longed to be able to do something useful in the world,
but was expected to stay with her mother and sister, helping supervise the
servants. - See more at: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/genderroles-in-the-19th-century#sthash.ay6LklBJ.dpuf
One doctor, William Acton, famously declared that The majority of women (happily
for them) are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind - See more at:
http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19thcentury#sthash.ay6LklBJ.dpuf
Before the 1882 Married Women's Property Act was passed this property would have
automatically have become the property of the husband.
http://www.womenpriests.org/historic/18property.asp
Education
Her stepmother decided that her stepsister Jane (later Claire) should be sent away
to school, but she saw no need to educate Shelley.
http://www.biography.com/people/mary-shelley-9481497#related-video-gallery
However meetings with the feminist Emily Davies and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first
American woman physician, convinced Elizabeth Garrett that she should become a
doctor (Anderson)
As the Society of Apothecaries did not specifically forbid women from taking their
examinations, in 1865 she passed their exams and gained a certificate which
enabled her to become a doctor.(Anderson)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/garrett_anderson_elizabeth.shtml
A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing,
and the modern languages.; and besides all this, she must possess a certain
something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and
expressions(ch. 8 - See more at: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-andvictorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century#sthash.ay6LklBJ.dpuf
1811 The National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor is founded by the
Church of England to provide schools

1880 Three women are granted degrees by the University of London. They are the
first women given degrees by a British University.
+look back at
Jobs
http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/19th-and-early-20thcentury
Most working class women in Victorian England had no choice but to work in order
to help support their families.
Women's work was often not included within statistics on waged work in official
records,
This is why the census returns from the early years of the 19th century often show a
blank space under the occupation column against womens names
According to the 1911 census, domestic service was the largest employer of women
and girls, with 28% of all employed women (1.35 million women) in England and
Wales engaged in domestic service.
In 1888 Clementina Black, one of the only 2 women delegates at the Women's
Trades Union Council, proposed the first TUC equal pay resolution.
1878 In Britain a new law bans women from working more than 56 hours a week in
any factory.
http://www.localhistories.org/womensedtime.html