19th Century Women :: Victorian Era

Purpose Statement This paper will outline the role of women in society during the Victorian Era and present some real life examples from the Womens Diaries of the Westward journey of 19th century women following their roles and at times having the those roles challenged by the diffifurorey of the trail.19th-Century WomenWomen in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the cult of domesticity. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the womens role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in Womens Diaries of the Westward Journey had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.One of the most common expectations for women then is that they are creditworthy for doing the chore of cleaning whether it is cleaning the signal, doing the laundry. The McGuffey Readers mentions the wo mens duty to clean in a multiple places. In this handbook it gives clear directions to the woman on what she is to do when cleaning, This ordinance completed, and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next operation is to smear the wall and ceilings with brushes dipped into a solution of lime (Gorn 111). The book explains how it is the womens job to thoroughly clean the house once a year in a manner that sounds very laborious It further states, The misfortune is, that the sole object is to make things clean (Gorn 112). In this part of the book it is very clear that it is saying that the womans duty is to clean. In Womens Diaries of the Westward Journey it illustrates this in a couple of passages. For example, one woman wrote in her diary, Oh Horrors how shall I express it it is the dreaded washing day . . . but washing must be done and procrastination wont do it for me (Schlissel 83). Although this woman obviously did non like doing the washing she saw it as her job to do. In additi on, the book describes this scene, The banks of a river would be lined with women who carried their kettles, their washtubs, and piles of unwashed linen (Schlissel 82). Again, it is the women who are doing the cleaning. The McGuffey Readers cosmos the handbook that young girls would read in school taught them that it was their place to do the cleaning.