Women in England, 1760-1914: A Social History Review

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Women in England, 1760-1914: A Social History Reviewn this book, Steinbach strives to explore both women's history and gender history of the "long nineteenth century" in Britain; the period from 1760 to 1914 that saw rapid social change due to industrialization, urbanization, the growth of the middle class, and Queen Victoria's empire. Steinbach sums up the purpose of her book: "We will attempt to combine women's history and gender history by looking carefully at the multifaceted relationships between lived experience and ideological concerns. We will concern ourselves with the ideas about gender with which nineteenth-century women lived, with the variety of social, economic, political, legal, cultural, religious, and other pressures brought to bear on women, and women's responses to these challenges. The ways in which things changed-and the ways which they did not-are the subject of this book" (p.6).
Steinbach's writing is extensively researched, with references to and quotes from 19th century legal proceedings, parliamentary records, newspaper articles, personal letters, advice manuals and novels, as well as current-day academic research papers, biographies and books.
What makes the book unique is the breadth and scope of Steinbach's scholarship, as well as her multi-faceted look at women's lives. "Nineteenth-century women were remarkable both for the restrictions within which they operated and for all they achieved in spite of them" (p. 289). Steinbach, unlike other authors, describes the vital power of class structures in English society, and how working-class, middle-class and upper-class women's experiences differed markedly. She also pays equal attention to how other factors such as education, work, religion, philanthropy and sex intersected with class to create a wide variety of the experiences of nineteenth-century women.
Steinbach's book is more accessible to the average reader interested in a broad, yet detailed, overview of nineteenth-century women's lives than Katrina Honeyman's Women, Gender and Industrialisation in England, 1700 - 1870. Honeyman's collection of scholarly essays contains such dense, academic prose that the reading is meant only for academic historians, and not for the average reader. Also, these essays view women's history through the overly narrow lens of modern feminist thought. While Steinbach's novel details the emergence of the feminist movement and its importance in women's lives, it also sees the entire experience of women in this period through many varied viewpoints. One of the most important viewpoints is that of nineteenth-century women themselves, through their own words, from biographies, letters, speeches or legal testimony. Steinbach does an excellent job of presenting women's history as integrally linked to British history, not as an add-on to "male" history, or as a defense against patriarchy; she views British women as part of their society, not separated from it by the status of victimhood.
Steinbach's book is highly recommended as a broad introduction to the history of women in the nineteenth century. This book expertly delves deeply into personal, individual stories while at the same time it provides a sweeping overview of major societal structures and changes. The language is not overly academic, making and enjoyable read for the non-historian.Women in England, 1760-1914: A Social History OverviewThis highly readable survey of women's lives in England between George III and the First World War brings together an astonishing range of research, including diaries, letters, memoirs, as well as social and statistical information addressing issues like life expectancy, sex, marriage, childbirth, and work.It looks, too, at the huge role women played in the British Empire: how imperialism shaped women's lives and how women also shaped the empire.

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