The Less Noble Sex: Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical Conceptions of Woman's Nature

Front Cover
Indiana University Press, May 22, 1989 - History - 241 pages

Physically frail, badly educated girls, brought up to lead useless lives as idle gentlewomen, married to dominant husbands, and relegated to "separate spheres" of life—these phrases have often been used to describe Victorian upper-middle-class women. M. Jeanne Peterson rejects such formulations and the received wisdom they embody in favor of a careful examination of Victorian ladies and their lives.

Focusing on a network of urban professional families over three generations, this book examines the scope and quality of gentlewomen's education, their physical lives, their relationship to money, their experience of family illness and death, and their relationships to men (brothers and friends as well as fathers and husbands). Peterson also examines the prominent place of work in the lives of these "leisured" Victorian ladies, both single and married. Far from idle, the mothers, wives, and daughters of Victorian clergymen, doctors, lawyers, university dons, and others were accomplished and productive members of society who made substantial public and private contributions to virtually every sphere of Victorian life.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Between Man and Animal
1
The Weaker Vessel
51
Creativitys Soil
109
The Beautiful Evil
153
POSTSCRIPT
169
BIBLIOGRAPHY
192
INDEX
220
CHAPTER
1
CHAPTER THREE
58
CHAPTER FIVE
132
CHAPTER
148
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Family, Love, and Work in the Lives of Victorian Gentlewomen
Mildred Jeanne Peterson
Snippet view - 1989
Family, Love, and Work in the Lives of Victorian Gentlewomen
Mildred Jeanne Peterson
Snippet view - 1989

Common terms and phrases

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Bibliographic information

TitleThe Less Noble Sex: Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical Conceptions of Woman's Nature
A Midland Book ; MB509
Volume 509 of A Midland book
AuthorM. Jeanne Peterson
Editionillustrated
PublisherIndiana University Press, 1989
ISBN0253208300, 9780253208309
Length241 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

History / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901)
History / Modern / 19th Century
History / World
Social Science / Social Classes & Economic Disparity
Social Science / Women's Studies
  
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