Jobs of the 19[th] century

> Employment in the 19th century was primarily for those in the middle class or for the poor.

> The upper class did not work because they were aristocracy or merchants who had earned enough money to quit working.

> Jobs for the middle class and poor in the Victorian era were unsafe because there were no regulations to limit hours or to protect against hazardous materials and conditions.

Women

> Upper- and middle-class women in the 19th century did not have careers.

> Universities barred women from employment in white-collar jobs like doctors, architects or bankers.

> Women who worked had jobs such as agricultural hands, miners, seamstresses, piece workers who made manufactured goods at home, barmaids and street vendors.

> Women who were educated but impoverished, from middle-class families that had fallen on hard times, worked as nannies or governesses who earned a meager salary. However, the most prevalent employment for a woman in the Victorian era was as a domestic servant.

> This work ranged from the humblest beginning as a scullery maid who took out slop to a more coveted role as the housekeeper and then up to the prized occupation of being a lady's maid who accompanied her female employer as a chaperon.


Children

> The upper classes had private tutors and governesses, while the poor had dame schools with non-professional instructors or no access to education

> Children as young as 6 labored in textile factories, in occupations such as flower girls or as rag pickers.

> Hazardous professions like chimney sweeping and mining employed children to fit into the tight spaces of chimneys and caves.

> Diseases like black lung from chimney soot or coal dust cut short the lives of these children.

Workhouses

> Workhouses were the 19th century version of welfare.

> The British government forced impoverished people into workhouses under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

> Before this law, churches administered relief through decentralized charity in the homes of the needy.

> The workhouse gave inmates demeaning occupations, like picking oakum, old ropes, apart to make ship caulking or breaking stones to pave roads.

> The workhouse alternative was for the individual to take jobs as street sweepers who brushed away debris and manure for passersby, or quasi-legal jobs such as sewer kosher or hunting for lost valuables in the city drains.


Men

> Professional jobs like doctor or lawyer were for men.

> These men were from upper-class society, and as such, had more educational opportunities. Lower-class males took jobs dangerous jobs as coal miners or knackers, who rendered horses for glue.

Aristocrats

The highest power, authority and social status holder of the 19[th] century England social hierarchy were the aristocrats. These people usually were not involved ...