Women in The Victorian Era - Women and The Economy

Women and The Economy

During the Victorian era, the economy was seen as something stable, and controlled by man. However, if disrupted it was seen to produce catastrophic effects within society. Due to the economy's high variability, it was often compared to a women's menstrual cycle and vice versa. The ideologue of the time, Herbet Spencer, describes the economic system as a "magnificent landscape trenched with dark drains", meaning that as a whole the economy is rather beautiful and structured, but needs to be controlled in order to avoid complication. In relation to the woman's body, the money of the economy was directly related to the blood within her body. At the time a woman's menstrual cycle was also seen as something that needed to be controlled, often mentally. However, the woman's body was not reflected in a positive light, described as "the sewer of all the excrements existing in the body" . If the cycle's flow was obstructed, it was believed that the woman would be led to insanity, and thus the medical industry grew in order to solve these problems.