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when a husband had desires which as a wife women were „contracted’ to fulfil.
Many people within the Victorian Era were “factually uniformed and emotionally frigid about sexual matters”.
21
To discourage pre-marital sexual relations the New Poor Law argued that “women bear financial
responsibilities for out-of- wedlock pregnancies”. In 1834 women were made
legally and financially supportive of their illegitimate children.
22
Sexual relations for women could not just be about desire and feelings like men had the luxury of, the consequences that were associated with sexual
interactions for women took away the physical desires that women could possess.
4. Women Education
Education in nineteenth-century England was not equal - not between the sexes, and not between the classes. Gentlemen would be educated at home
by a governess or tutor until they were old enough to attend Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse, or a small handful of lesser
schools. The curriculum was heavily weighted towards the classics - the languages and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome. After that, they would
attend Oxford or Cambridge. Here they might also study mathematics, law, philosophy, and modern history. Oxford tended to produce more Members of
Parliament and government officials; while Cambridge leaned more towards
21
Jan Marsh, Sex Sexuality in the 19th Century, article accessed in March 2013 from http:www.vam.ac.ukcontentarticlesssex-and-sexuality19th-century
22
Lisa Cody Forman, The Politics of Illegitimacy in an Age of Reform: Women, Reproduction, and Political Economy in England‟s New Poor Law of 1834. Womens History 11
4, 2000, p.131-156.
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the sciences and produced more acclaimed scholars. However, it was not compulsory, either legally or socially, for a gentleman to attend school at all.
He could, just as easily, be taught entirely at home. However, public school and University were the great staging grounds for public life, where you made
your friends and developed the connections that would aid you later in life. Beau Brummel met the Prince of Wales at Eton and that friendship helped him
conquer all of London Society despite his lack of family background. A ladys education was taken, almost entirely, at home. There were
boarding schools, but no University, and the studies were very different. She learned French, drawing, dancing, music, and the use of globes. If the school,
or the governess, was interested in teaching any practical skills, she learned plain sewing as well as embroidery, and accounts.
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5. Working Women
