Men and Women

Technology and industry may have undergone revolutionary changes during the Victorian period, but public attitudes toward gender roles were strictly conservative. With very few exceptions, the cards show middle-class women confined not only in their corsets, but tethered to their homes and household responsibilities. Their pursuits consisted mainly of overseeing maids and housekeepers or making life comfortable for their husbands and children. While they participate in some leisure time activities, they are not shown as deeply involved. Unmarried women are frequently depicted as flirtatious, although they sometimes hold off unwanted attention. Working-class women tend to be shown in a derogatory light, often as members of immigrant communities. Irish charwomen, for example, are a common image and often the butts of humorous jabs, portrayed as blowzy and shrewish, henpecking the men in their lives.

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