When thinking of women of the past, we often like to think that a woman's place was in her own home, however, women have taken up occupations throughout history. In the Georgian era many professions were thought of as exclusively ‘women’s work’, namely domestic work, and were deemed unsuitable for men. Many other roles and trades were increasingly accepting women into their working ranks. Although books and other media of the period, and contemporary depictions, often focused on upper class Georgian women as ladies of leisure, women of the lower and emerging middle classes often needed to support themselves and their families through their working wages.
A girl may have sought work in her adolescence to supplement her family’s income in lieu of education, as did wives whose husbands did not earn enough to get by. Unwed women and widows worked to support themselves, with many occupations for women requiring her to be unmarried.
Domestic Workers
Domestic work was a very common profession for women and girls, they would often enter a household at a very young age and take up one of the many roles households could require. Their job would provide them with accommodation, meals, pay and occasionally clothes. The lowest rung in the household’s hierarchy was a general housemaid, who would undertake a wide range of tasks, some very physically demanding. Housemaids could be asked to clean, maintain fireplaces, gather laundry and clothes mending, cooking and serving food, attending to guests and other household tasks. In a larger house there may be many housemaids, or in a small house a woman may be alone and described as a ‘maid of all work’, having to work even harder and taking on even more work usually filled by other staff.
If a housemaid worked hard and developed her skills she may be allowed to rise through the ranks into one of the senior positions domestic workers could hold. A lady’s maid was a trusted and skilled profession, helping the mistress of the house by looking after her clothes, helping her dress, styling her hair and helping her with her grooming. They often sewed and altered their lady’s clothes and made their own cosmetics, However, if her employer found fault in her, it could impact het ability to find further employment. An example of this is Ann Farmer, when seeking employment with Thomas Baker in Alresford her previous employer Elizabeth Hall wrote a letter to Thomas instructing him to not employ her. Whether Ann Farmer deserved the scathing assessment is unknown, but the letter shows how much power employers had over these women trying to make a living.
A housekeeper was the highest rank a woman could occupy within domestic work, she would manage the other female staff members and oversee all of the cleaning, cooking, laundry and hospitality a large house would require. It was a highly respected position, and housekeepers were trusted to help manage the shopping and spending alongside her mistress. Although paid more than any other maid, housekeepers were usually required to stay unmarried and without children, but occasionally she would be married to a senior male staff member, such as a butler, and form a working couple. Mary Lunn, born in Crondall, is an example of the later. Around 1805 she went to work as a Lady’s Maid for Mrs Eliza Jervoise, at Herriard Park, not far from Basingstoke, and in 1810 she was promoted to housekeeper. In 1813, she married the Herriard butler, George Mountford.
Domestic work was generally a respectable trade for lower class women; however, a few positions were looked down upon by society. Washerwomen dealt with the laundry of a household, it was hot, smelly and backbreaking work. Clothes were boiled in huge vats called ‘coppers’, cleaned with detergents made from wood ash and urine, and then beaten with wooden bats. To stop themselves getting too hot and too wet, laundresses would work with bare arms and legs which was thought by others to mean they had looser morals. Some women would fall into this line of work due to difficult circumstances, in 1769 Mary Slatter was left by her husband after just eleven days of being married as he was called away to serve in Gibraltar. In order to provide for herself she moved to Portsmouth and took up sewing and washing, after being informed of her husband's death in 1786 she applied for poor relief in Winchester. Working women's lives were often precarious, and circumstances could change dramatically due to the deaths of spouses and other family members.
Regarded as a highly skilled and respected profession today, during the Georgian era medical nurses were unregulated, overworked and often thought of as ignorant, inattentive and selfish. Private nurses would stay up to nurse patients, feeding, bathing and comforting them, as well as changing dressings, administering medicines and sometimes laundering patient’s sheets and clothes. Nurses' unsocial hours and close proximity to illnesses added to their poor social standing and frequently made them ill themselves.
Education and Child Care
Caring for and teaching children, especially when young, was seen as exclusively women’s work. Wealthy families who could afford to hire help would employ a variety of skilled workers throughout a child’s upbringing.
A wet nurse would look after babies when they were very young, frequently a married woman with young children herself, she would foster the babies of wealthy women while she was unable to do manual labour, such as working in the fields or mills. Occasionally older women with past childcare experience would also become wet nurses. Although there was a long tradition of wet nurses breastfeeding babies on behalf of their mothers, during the Georgian era ideas were changing, and it was seen as healthier for mothers to breastfeed if possible.
Nursery maids lived inside wealthy households and were considered mid-level servants. These women looked after children throughout their childhood; feeding, bathing, dressing and comforting them, as well as caring for the nursery room itself; lighting fires, making beds and fetching water.
Georgian children would need to be extremely privileged to have any education, and even then, only boys were allowed to go to school or have academic interests. A governess was a highly educated working woman who would live in a wealthy household to teach girls domestic skills, social graces, to play instruments and other artistic pursuits, like dancing and needlework. Often from a wealthy family herself, a governess may need to start work due to dwindling finances or the death of family, she would be unmarried or occasionally a widow. Her professional status was unusual; she would not be considered a domestic worker but would not be considered part of her employing family either.
Both specialised positions, nursery maids and governesses could stay with a family for a long time, raising siblings as they came along, and depending on the household, a child may see the staff more than their parents. Edward Austen employed Anne Sharp as a governess to his family, she went on to have several similar positions including working at a boarding school.
Trade
During this period women were able to take charge of certain commercial trades, some seen as respectable and astute professions, and some considered the lowest parts of Georgian society.
Business-minded women might have opened draper shops, selling fabric by the yard, trimmings and other haberdashery supplies. You could not buy ready-made clothing during this period so the fabric would need to be taken to a dressmaker or tailor to be sewn into garments. Owning a draper’s shop would be a highly respected profession and a successful shopkeeper may be able to afford to hire other girls as shop assistants or sell fine fabrics to the gentry. Similarly, a highly skilled woman may open a milliner’s shop, selling hat making supplies and creating their own hats, bonnets and caps to sell to ladies, a wardrobe essential at the time.
To supplement her store’s income, a businesswoman may have acquired a circulating library to keep alongside her shop. Containing magazines, pamphlets and the brand-new writing-form novels, she would need to invest her money in books and bindings but hire fees and subscriptions would ensure a steady return of money. Not only would the library bring in more money, ladies looking to read the newest gossip and stories may become faithful customers to her main business.
A woman could also respectably become a landlady, renting out rooms in her own house or another property, or, if she was doing well, renting out an entire house as one tenancy. An easy profession to manage, women could secure earnings quickly and with ease, even gaining earnings on the side of another type of work. Although uncommon, a woman may even become the proprietor of an Inn, combining the skills of landlady and those of the hospitality trade, mainly catering to travellers. One such woman was Mary Martin, born in 1730 who ran the Maidenhead Inn, Basingstoke. In March 1798, she sold up and took over a local Millinery, Haberdashery, Drapery, Hosiery and Stationery business. She expanded the millinery and haberdashery and launched a subscription ‘circulating library’. On 4th of November 1800, a bankruptcy notice appeared in the London Gazette, Mrs Martin’s personal and business assets were liquidated and paid out to creditors as a percentage of the debt. Bankruptcy allowed her, as a trader, to avoid debtors prison.
Perhaps the least respected of all trades in Georgian society, many women in need of money turned to prostitution. Without support from family or loved ones and without other skills or character references, women would populate theatres, taverns or brothels, known as ‘bawdy-houses’ in order to find customers. Some women were able to find success, and sometimes infamy, through sex work, climbing the social ladder through their clients and on some occasions becoming official mistresses to aristocrats and royalty. However, for most the low pay, abuse and exposure to diseases could lead to a tough and sometimes fatal way of life.
Georgian women’s lives were complex and varied, working women would enter all manner of professions to support themselves and their families. Often, towards the end of their lives, women would be in danger of falling on hard times as they lost the ability to continue working. They would often rely on friends and family to support them to ensure they did not end up destitute. Life could be challenging for working women during the Georgian period but by utilising their skills, and support from their friends, they could provide for themselves successfully for most of their lives.
This topic page researched as part of the Heritage Fund Data Hunters and Story Gatherers project.
