Social Context

• Victorian women's categorisations devolve into either Mary or Eve, and couldn't avoid being placed into one category.
• The word 'prostitute' didn't include solely sex workers, but also unmarried women in relationships with men, unmarried mothers, actresses and artists.
• There were around 80,000 prostitutes in London with a population of 3 million.
• Lady Hillingdon said "when I hear his steps outside my door I lie down on my bed, open my legs and think of England."
• Studies on mid-Victorian parish registers comparing dates of marriages and baptisms have even shown that up to half of the brides were pregnant when married.
• Until the Married Women's Property Act of 1870, everything a woman owned belonged to her husband. A mistress remained more independent financially, but she had no safety net.
• The New Woman began as a foil to the angel of the house that and allowed women to slowly find independence.
• Prostitution during the Victorian Era allowed women to barter in the market without the influence of fathers or husbands. Both factory workers and prostitutes pushed their bodies to the limits in their work.
• An average of 2,500 prostitutes were arrested per year. The police found that the majority of prostitutes were such because their original jobs weren't providing them with enough income.
• The 1864 Contagious Diseases Act subjected suspected prostitutes to invasive STD checks. If they tested positive, they were arrested and sentenced to up to three months in lock hospitals.
• Refusal of sex was seen as reason enough for a man to annul a marriage. There wasn't a law preventing marital rape until 1991.
• For poor families, the only means of education was through sunday school.
• In 1851, 70% of men were literate, compared to 55% of women.
• The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 allowed a moderately wealthy man to divorce his wife, on the grounds that it impacted upon his ability to pass on his property to a male heir.
• Anti-feminists used the physical force argument, which argued that differences between men and women could be argued through the difference in their physical power.
• The Poor Law Amendment Act made the destitute go to the workhouse rather than the parish for support.