Social spheres and genteel women

Extract

[...] Social spheres and genteel women The book The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives In Georgian England by Amanda Vickery[i] is a study of “genteel” women during Georgian England. These women came from prominent families (however, not aristocracy) who were daughters of lawyers, clerics, minor gentlemen, merchants and manufacturers. They also married into such positions. These women would have been what we consider today as upper middle class. The book covers the daily lives of the women, using their diaries as its source. [...]

[...] There are many other sources that examine this topic.[v] She also goes on to write that every author wants to believe that social change happened within their own book, but that is not so with hers. However, within the last chapter, she continuously tries to point out that the women she writes about led the way for women during the Victorian era to have more rights, but makes no attempt to prove this statement. She also argues that feminist views must be disregarded when it comes to Georgian women because they do not apply. [...]

[...] She also ignores the role of women in education, law, and politics at the time. This would have invalidated her claim of women only having a role in the private spheres of society. She would have also needed a larger group of women to research. Her failure to mention anything about the industrialization of the time was also an oversight. It could have accounted for the high turnover rate of servants (although in Elizabeth Shackleton's case it was probably an indication of how it was to work for her) that Vickery mentions, which she claims was the case for all genteel women. [...]