Women's Lives

Women's lives in modern Europe were determined by the countries where they lived, by the social class to which they belonged, and to the era.  The documents listed here give you a glimpse into the lives of women of all social classes, the attitudes of men toward women's lives, and the ways that women tried to change their status and conditions.  As you read through this evidence, remember the central questions before us: why the status of women changed when it did and in the ways that it did, and you should be prepared to draw conclusions about why the various actors took the positions or made the choices that they did.

1. The Duchess of Orleans: Versailles Etiquette (1704)
2. Daniel Defoe: (On) The Education Of Women (1719)
3. Salon Life
4. Florence Nightingale: Rural Hygiene
5. Women Miners in the English Coal Pits
6. Report...from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842)
7. Prostitution in France (1857)