A Women's Life in the Victorian Era ~ Female Histeria

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Women were seen as reckless and incompetent during the Victorian Era (1837 to 1901). They were under observation all of the time. Women were not allowed to go anywhere alone. Since no decisions were made on her own, she must have someone with her at all times. She was too susceptible to temptation. Her husband was now her legal guardian, and she must confer, obey and always consult with him before any decisions could be made. Yet women managed households, raised children, maintained the social network, were trusted with great responsibility, but they had no authority. As long as a man stood in front of her, taking credit for it all, all was well. In the eye of the law a husband and wife were one entity. A married women ceased to be a person under the law, her being was absorbed. She no longer had legal ownership over herself. She could breathe and think but legally did so through him. If she were insulted or harmed in any way all dealings would go through her husband and none of it should inconvenient him in any way. Medical text of that period said the female mind was fragile, easily over stimulated and prone to emotional excess. Too much freedom, independence, thinking or decision making could lead to hysteria. Independence meant chaos. Victorian doctors believed that women were just prone to fits of hysteria. The symptoms could be anxiety, insomnia, irritability, muscle spasms, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, fainting spells or a tendency to cause trouble. In some readings the pelvic massage was said to be used. A woman named Racheal Manes even wrote a book entitled "The Technology of Orgasm". This was all myth. The truth is that the medical foundation used this diagnosis as a weapon to control women's behavior. One doctor wrote that one quarter of all women were afflicted with this mysterious condition. Hysteria became a catch-all for anything doctors couldn't explain or didn't want to deal with. So, if a woman began to question her rights or her restrictive life it was termed hysteria. The medical community believed that a women's reproductive system, having a uterus, made them weak. That this was the source of a women's supposed emotional and mental fragility. It made a woman irrational, unstable and prone to mysterious illnesses. It is believed that 60% of women accounted for the amount of asylum patients by 1850. They were placed there for behavior male society did not agree with. There were instances where a woman's actions, bodily functions, or mere interests as a woman were seen as abnormal or a symptom of insanity. Depression after the death of a loved one or lack of a menstrual cycle were reasons a woman could be eligible for admittance. This went on from around 1850 to the early 1900s. Feminist ideas began to spread among the educated middle classes with some discriminatory laws being repealed and women's suffrage movement gaining momentum.