‘To what extent were there gender inequalities in Victorian Britain? ’ In Victorian Britain gender inequalities would have been evident as women’s right to vote was not legalised until 1928. Queen Victoria was not an advocate in equal rights for women which is a fair representation for the rest of British society at the time as she was a woman in England at the time with most power so shouldn’t she be the spearhead for women suffrage?In addition, Queen Victoria’s empire, naval and national force strength boded male superiority undermining female integrity as the majority of people representing British forces were male. This shows the extent of gender inequality as women weren’t even betoken by their own queen. Furthermore, this shows the era Victoria grew up in where men were the dominant figure and she carried on these traditional values. Nevertheless, the government’s laissez faire attitude didn’t promote change in government or society showing that the male and female gap wasn’t going to change unless the government did.
However, economic progression sparked enormous change in not just the economy and industry as on the one hand it had its benefits as more jobs where becoming available for people and flaws in education and health were being highlighted and therefore change was happening. Women were seeing these other changes in society and demanded change in the rights of women as other areas of society were now able to progress this should be a period of radical change for all aspects of society including women.Despite, these changes in society flaws as progression was seen in areas these also caused problems as the influx of people from countryside to the city for job opportunities created problems such as increased sewage which systems couldn’t cope with. This ideology could be mirrored in the change in values towards women and social inequalities as maybe society wasn’t ready for all this change at the moment as they had just come to terms with economic and industrial change.To conclude, the extent of social inequality towards women in Victorian society was evident as the typical role of a women was personified as a housewife and a mother with no influence in political issues as they was not allowed to vote in addition, career opportunities were also limited compared to male counterparts as industry didn’t see that women could do the same jobs as efficiently as a man could.
The change in industry did spark change for women as flaws in society were highlighted and the way women were treated was one of them.
