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George Gissings The Odd Women
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Tutor: Peter Morton
Essay Topic: The Odd Women, Feminism in the 1890’s.
Women in England during the 1890’s were exposed to some of the first popular ideas of feminism that would change the lives of women dramatically in the twentieth century. Whilst late nineteenth century feminists known as ‘new women’ were more economically independent than their predecessors, they were still held back by societies old fashioned ideas on love, sex, marriage, family and the women’s role. George Gissing’s novel, The Odd Women portrays the lives of four women representative of the women of their time, whilst at the same time constructing a literary masterpiece of Victorian times.
British women during the late Victorian Age were pioneers in the fight for the achievement of the rights of women equal to those of men. Feminists in the latter half of the nineteenth century sought to alter deeply ingrained ideas concerning the position of women in society. Ruskin, a strong believer in the Victorian Ideal, argued that society considered women as ‘no more than the pillar of the home and the helpmeet of man.’1
The assumption that all women would marry and be taken care of, legally, financially, and morally by their husbands, prevented early Victorian Women any opportunity for independence from men. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a married women was by law, void of the right to own property or carry out a lawsuit, existing only as a wife, daughter, mother or sister. ... Women trained as semi-servants to their husbands were not treated as equals rather were constantly looked down upon. ... Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, a sort of loosening of ideas on women’s sexual roles took place. Society begun to question women’s social position. In the external sphere, women issues were making some legal progress on a number of fronts. ‘The Married women’s property act’ saw its consolidation in 1884 allowing married women the right to own their own property separately from their husbands. ... Schools such as the Queen’s college, Girton, and Bedford College were founded, along with a particular campaign, which attempted to advance the role of women in the professions, with a particular focus on medicine. However, the first attempts made at feminism were not directed at married women, rather at the thousands of single women in the country at the time. At the start of the century virtually no trades were open to women and the ones that were such as coal mining, paid an average wage of 11s 7ds per week; only a third of the male wage.
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Paper Information
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Title: George Gissings The Odd Women
Words: 2134
Rating: None
Pages: 8.5
submitted by: Bronwyn
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