Victorian Women

  Victoria England was, as some of you may know, incredibly repressed.  Unless you were Queen Victoria herself, when a woman got married, she gave up almost all of her rights and became her husband's property.
  One woman who lived during this time was Caroline Norton.  She was a very well respected member of society.  She wrote poems and songs and was both beautiful and intelligent.  She often went to literary gatherings and would likely be the only woman in attendance.  However, Caroline's family was in poor fortune, so she needed to marry well.  She ended up marrying a lawyer and member of Parliament that she barely knew named George Norton.  He ended up being terribly abusive, often hitting and bruising her, but she continued to go to social functions.  George dislike her wittiness and her outgoingness, and preferred women who were silent and obedient.  He lost his seat in Parliament, so Caroline called Lord Melbourne, a family friend, to come visit to help George out.  He was Home Secretary and he gave George a job as a magistrate, which began to take up most of George's time.  Melbourne began to visit Caroline for several hours a few times a week.  They struck up a very close friendship during this time.
  In the next few years, Caroline had three sons which she loved very much.  In one instance, during a frightful row, George knocked Caroline to the floor until she miscarried her baby.   During this time, it was legal to beat your wife as long as you did not use a stick thicker than your thumb.  Caroline was unable o leave, or else she would have to leave her children as well.  Melbourne knew how badly George treated his wife, but the press was already writing things about their close friendship, and later, George sued Melbourne for committing adultery with her.  As a result, Melbourne, who was now Prime Minister, let his lawyer appear in his stead, but Caroline, who had no legal rights, could not appear in court to testify.  The main witness for Norton was revealed to have been bribed, so Melbourne was found not guilty.  Despite this, Caroline's reputation was ruined and Melbourne ceased communications with her. Polite society rejected her and George took her children away.
  Caroline decided to study the law intensely to fight back against George's cruelty.  Any property that she inherited, any estates that she owned, and any money that she made as a writer went directly to her husband, not to her.  She was a non-person when it came to the law.  She used whatever power she had to influence those around her.  Because of this, the new Infant Custody Act was passed, which gave separated wives the rights to their children.  George Norton then moved the children to Scotland.   Some years later, she got a letter that one of the boys had been thrown off his horse and had died.  After this, George allowed her to see the boys occasionally, but cut off her allowance, meaning that she fell far into debt.  She figured that since, according to the law, she and George Norton were one person, he should have to pay her bills, but he refused.  Eventually, one of her creditors took George to court because they could not take Caroline to court since she did not exist.
  Caroline was able to show up at the trial, and George called her as a witness, to make her pay.  She now knew enough about the law to fight George in court.  She came out victorious and had another victory later when the new Divorce Act said that divorced and separated women had rights to their own property, children, and earnings.

  Another Victorian woman who suffered from the double standards of the day was a woman named Harriet Mordaunt.  In 1866, she married Charles Mordaunt and for a time, they were happy together.  Harriet had royal connections from a young age because the Prince of Wales would often visit her family's country estate and was very fond of her.  These days, he is known as "Dirty Bertie" because of his less than spotless reputation.  Charles was well respected in society and was a member of Parliament, but he was frequently away from home.  Some conditions of their marriage were that Harriets friends were allowed to visit when Charles was gone, but Harriet was not allowed to see the Prince of Wales.  However, the prince visited anyway and it was certain that they were having an affair.  Charles left for about 18 months for a fishing trip, but came home a bit early, and when he arrived, he found the Prince watching Harriet ride around in a small carriage being pulled by two of the royal horses.
  About eight months later, Harriet gave birth to a baby girl, but also found out that one of her old royal friends had contracted an STD, which Harriet was afraid that she had contracted as well.  In the end, both she and the baby were clean.  However, she was so worried because the baby had developed a strange eye infection that she told Charles that she had committed adultery and that he was not the father.  She was quite certain that they would work out some solution, like her being sent away, but he thought that he would forgive her.  Instead, Charles decided to divorce Harriet.  Her father rushed to her home and they worked out a scheme where Harriet would pretend to be mad, so that she would not have to appear in divorce court.  He did this probably because her divorce would have ruined the chances of her other five unmarried sister's chances of marriage.  Several psychiatrists declared her legally insane.  Her physical condition also deteriorated.  None of the men that she had claimed to have had affairs with supported her, which surprised her quite a bit
  The judge decided that the case for Harriet's sanity would be dependent on her sanity before the birth of the baby.  A letter was then revealed naming Prince Bertie, so he chose to defend himself in court.  Queen Victoria stepped in and ensured that the court would rule in Bertie's favor.  The court declared Lady Mordaunt totally unfit to appear in court. 
  She was locked away in an asylum for the next 33 years, until her death in 1906.

  A new law called the Contagious Diseases Act now permitted women who were found to have venereal diseases to be locked into hospitals until they were found to be cured, and one of the women who spoke up against this law was Josephine Butler.  She was very well educated and religious and had a strong political sense.  She and her husband had three sons ad a daughter, who tumbled down the stairs, broke her neck and died at the age of 5.  This was the turning point for Josephine and the family moved to Liverpool shortly afterward.  Josephine was shocked at the young ages and the number of girls forced into prostitution there.  Some were as young as 12.  She was kind and understanding to them , and she visited one of the workhouses where they were kept.  She called the prostitutes her sisters.  Shortly after, she took a prostitute called Mary into her home to care for her.  Mary was the first of several and she was ill with tuberculosis.  Before she died, she had one of Josephine's son write down a poem that she created for Josephine.  Before long, these prostitutes were filling almost every spare room in Josephine's house.
  The Contagious Diseases Act was really passed for the soldiers in the army.  Marriage was discouraged, so prostitution was necessary and about 1 in 3 soldiers were infected with some kind of STD.  The law said that prostitutes had to be examined for STDs about once a month or they would be thrown into prison, which infringed upon their civil liberties.  Josephine began visiting brothels and the like to see how this law was affecting the women.  Women were often strapped into chairs for the examinations and they were treated harshly and unfairly.  Under the law, any woman in a garrison town could be arrested and examined.  Josephine sent a petition through Parliament that got 2,000 signatures and her association for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act began to publish a paper called the Shield.  Her husband, George, was very supportive of her campaign.
  Josephine was, however, often told by her male colleagues to tone down the language that she used.  One such example was that she called the examinations "surgical rape".  She respectfully refused.  As Josephine gained popularity, she also gained strong enemies.  In one instance, her enemies started a fire below the room where she was holding a meeting and the members only escaped by jumping out of a trap door.  After 16 years, Parliament finally voted for a repeal of the Act.  Victoria gave her consent to the repeal of the Act in 1886.  She died in 1906.