The Angel Out Of The House: Middle-Class Women And Philanthropy In Nineteenth-Century Britain

As the Industrial Revolution progressed, the British middle class accumulated largefortunes and rose quickly in the nineteenth century. With the improvement of economicconditions, there was no longer any need for middle-class women to work hard for thefamily’s livelihood. They were increasingly expected to become “the angel in the house”,who would willingly stay at home and commit herself to doing domestic chores andbringing up children. Instead of living such a life confined to home, in reality a largenumber of middle-class women walked out of home and took adventures into the publicworld, where they made remarkable accomplishments in the philanthropic cause andbecame “the angels out of the house”.At present research on the philanthropic work of British middle-class women in thenineteenth century is in its infancy. The main purpose of the thesis is to provide a generaldescription of middle-class women’s philanthropic work in nineteenth-century Britain andto examine the reasons behind such female philanthropy as well as its impacts on thefirst-wave feminism in the hope of facilitating an objective and deep understanding ofBritish middle-class women at that period. The thesis is based on a qualitative research ofliterature. A number of monographs, essay collections, memoirs, articles and dissertationsrelated to British middle-class women and their philanthropic work in the nineteenthcentury are examined and analyzed from different angles and useful information in theliterature is further carefully organized and summed up to serve the writing of the thesis.Through the examination of British middle-class women’s philanthropic work in thenineteenth century, the thesis finds that middle-class women at that period bravelystepped out of home to do philanthropic work and took advantage of their philanthropicwork to expand their public activities; by doing this, middle-class women was trying hardto adapt to the constantly-changing society rather than passively staying at home to beidle onlookers of the society as many people have assumed.