In a traditional household, there would be a mother whose sole occupation as a housewife is to care for the children and her husband. There would also be the husband whose role is to go out to work, earn and put food on the table for the family. Of course, the children would be there as well. Fast forward for today and you would see that both husband and wife have wage-earning occupations. Both are professionals. At the very least, especially in the Singaporean context, they would have a maid to take care of their children while they are at work.
How did such a wonderful Victorian ideal become so misconstrued into what it is today? First of all, such ideal did not apply to everyone. It only applied to the rich and at the very most, the middle class who could afford to. Those from the working class had to toil the land. This is in reference to the women who had to toil all day long on their lands since they were basically on subsistence farming. If they didn’t do so, they simply do not have much to eat. Hence, the Victorian ideal was very much an absurd ideal for them. Even if they do not work on their own lands, they would be working for the rich as maids or cooks. None had the time to explore the ideals of become a Victorian lady.
Today, things are not much different than what it was centuries ago. Instead of lands, these women instead could be working in factories. Long hours, monotonous work and poor benefits: the fate of these women has not changed much despite the big news that we keep hearing about how the quality of life has been improving for us all; how feminism has actually helped these women achieve better in life. This was not to be.
Why are majority of the women still stuck in the same vicious cycle? It goes back to the arguments that two very familiar theories have: Capitalism versus Marxism. Because capitalist want more capital for themselves to big a bigger empire for themselves, they would cut costs by doing things like cutting down on labour.
After the Second World War, survivors flocked back to the industries, snapping up their old jobs. These men formed unions and soon demanded for higher wages. Viewing this as a big hindrance, capitalist chose to instead use women labour which are deemed to be cheaper, much more efficient and less intimidating to them. This was fuelled by feminist movements which soon almost had every other woman in the workforce. Offices, factories; blue collared or white collared, women were everywhere in the workforce.
Evolution in the human world often occurs at breakneck speed. The demographics soon changed. Presently, there seems to be more women than men everywhere. Even in the institutes of higher learning. Women population seems to be much more then the men’s. In companies, more and more women are taking on executive roles and even own them (think Mrs Lee Kuan Yew).
What caused all this? Victorian ideals; is it still relevant? I doubt that it even exists. Women’s ambitions have now changed. It might not even differ much then the men’s. Study hard, get a good education, and get a good job and a great career. Perhaps this is the new Victorian ideal.
