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Page 3 of 9

• 1. The icon
• 2. The ideal woman
• 3. At home
• 4. Household management
• 5. The ideology
• 6. Wife and mother
• 7. Social responsibility
• 8. Woman's mission
• 9. Towards a political mission
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At home

The home was regarded as a haven from the busy and chaotic public world of politics and business, and from the grubby world of the factory. Those who could afford to, created cosy domestic interiors with plush fabrics, heavy curtains and fussy furnishings which effectively cocooned the inhabitants from the world outside. The middle-class household contained concrete expressions of domesticity in the form of servants, homely décor, comfortable furnishings, home entertainment, and clothing.

'The female body was dressed to emphasise a woman's separation from the world of work.'

Women's clothes began to mirror women's function. In the 19th century women's fashions became more sexual - the hips, buttocks and breasts were exaggerated with crinolines, hoopskirts and corsets which nipped in the waist and thrust out the breasts. The female body was dressed to emphasise a woman's separation from the world of work. By wearing dresses that resembled their interior furnishings, women became walking symbols of their social function - wife, mother, domestic manager.

The fashion for constricting corsets and large skirts served to underline not only a woman's prime function, but also the physical constraints on her activities. It was difficult to move freely wearing corsets that made it hard to breathe, and heavy fabrics that impeded movement. No wonder that those women who could afford to keep up with the latest fashions were prone to fainting, headaches and what was termed 'hysteria'.

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Published: 2001-08-09