THE WOMAN'S ROLE IN THE EDWARDIAN ERA

Life for women in the 19th Century followed a well worn track. The poorest woman in society had little choice in the pattern their lives would take. It was struggle enough to feed and clothe oneself but maintaining a family was an all consuming process and so it continued as the Century turned the corner. By the turn of the 19th Century though, there were many changes in the lives of middle class women.

The statistics tell us that one in ten married women, at this time, were in paid employment. Most of these women were from the poorest backgrounds. It was not considered suitable for a woman from the middle or upper classes to be in paid employment. 

Women were seen as a family's possession, to be groomed for marriage, the richer the better, have and raise children, run a household, not much changed from the Medieval perception of women. All of these assumptions of what a woman could or would do were based on the principle that a woman would marry.

What if a woman did not marry ? In 1901, 14% of women under the age of 45 years, did not marry. The 'suitability' of husbands was a key issue, not able to marry beneath them left some women on the margins, either living within the confines of their immediate family or possibly becoming companion to an older woman.