Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, 2001 - History - 227 pages

Through a detailed description of the life and activities of the middle-class married woman of London between 1875 and 1900, this study reveals how housewives unwittingly became engines for change as the new century neared. In marked contrast to the stereotypical depictions of Victorian women in literature and on television, Draznin reveals a woman seldom seen: the stay-at-home housewife whose activities were not much different than those of her counterparts today. By exploring her daily activities, how she cleaned her home, disciplined her children, managed her servants, stretched a limited budget, and began to indulge herself, one discovers the human dimension of women who lived more than a century ago. While most studies of this period consider values, aspirations, and attitudes, this book concentrates on actions, what these women did all day, to provide readers with a new perspective on Victorian life.

Late-Victorian London was a surprisingly modern city with a public face of well-lit streets, an excellent underground railway system, and extended municipal services. In the home, gas stoves were replacing coal ranges and household appliances were becoming more common. Having both money to spend and a strong incentive to buy the new laborsaving devices, ready-to-wear clothing, and other manufactured products, the middle-class matron's resistance to change gave way to a rising consumer culture. Despite her nearly exclusive preoccupation with home and family, these urban women became agents for the modernization of Britain.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Home
25
Her Looks and
35
Life in Greater London
45
Copyright

10 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day
Yaffa C. Draznin
Limited preview - 2000
Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day
Yaffa Draznin
Snippet view - 2001
Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day
Yaffa Draznin
No preview available - 2001

Common terms and phrases

activities Adburgham advice became Beeton Beeton's Book birth Book of Household Branca British budget Butler Saw chores cleaning clothing cook Crimping Irons Crinolines and Crimping Daily David Rubinstein department store Dickens's Dictionary Dictionary of London dinner domestic manuals Domestic Technology dresses E. S. Turner England expensive family's Feminine Ideal floor Fortnum & Mason furniture girls Gloag hired Household Management husband Ibid income Isabella Beeton Jason Dunda Karl Baedeker kitchen last quarter later Lois Banner Macqueen-Pope maid-of-all-work marriage MCMW meals middle middle-class families middle-class housewife middle-class married woman middle-class matron middle-class women Mitchell nineteenth century nursemaid pregnancy probably Respectable Society retail Romance of Transport schools scrubbing clothes servants Shops and Shopping Silent Sisterhood social streets suburbs Thompson Victorian Britain Victorian Comfort Victorian House Victorian London Victorian women Walkley and Foster washing women's magazines York young

References to this book

Bibliographic information

TitleVictorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day
ABC-Clio ebook
Issue 179 of Contributions in Women's Studies, ISSN 0147-104X
AuthorYaffa Draznin
Editionillustrated
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 2001
ISBN0313313997, 9780313313998
Length227 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Europe / General
History / World
Social Science / Gender Studies
Social Science / Women's Studies
  
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