The actual process of labor and delivery were very important to aristocratic families of the Victorian era. Many would travel to London weeks before to stay with friends throughout the final few weeks. The purpose of this journey, called going to town, was socially motivated as it made public the birth of a new baby. The house had to be prepared very specifically to accommodate the pregnant woman and her husband, friends, family, the doctor and his team of medical attendants. Not all women actually made the trip to London or to an alternate location to deliver, and therefore many rearranged all of the rooms and furniture in their own house to prepare for weeks of confinement. Confinement was the term used to describe the last few weeks of pregnancy that were spent in the bed of a specially prepared house.

The actual beds women gave birth on were lightweight and portable, and are significant for several reasons. One reason the delivery beds were so highly regarded among women in aristocratic Victorian families was because they increased the important female bonding aspect of childbirth. Because of this, the beds were passed down from generation to generation. Delivering a baby on a separate bed than the one it was conceived on diminishes the sexual connotations associated with birth. This not only reinforces Victorian values of prudence, but gives childbirth a more spiritual meaning, as well.

Anesthesia was first administered in 1847 to obstetric patients by the Scottish physician James Simpson. Before this pain-relieving medicine became popularized, doctors relied on blood-letting to alleviate labor pains. Up to 50 oz. of blood could be drawn to ease pain and weaken the patient as a whole.

Even during labor, Victorian principles of purity and modesty are evident. The clothing women wore consisted of a shift tucked up under the arms with a short petticoat placed about the hips which is to be removed after labor and the dry shift drawn down.The position most commonly used during child birth was the position which entailed lying on the left side of the body with knees bent and drawn up into the abdomen. This position prevented the accouchuer (doctor) and patient from seeing each other, enabling the mother to save face in an embarrassing situation for Victorian women.

The recovery time for women after labor and delivery lasted between four and six weeks, and consisted of various stages of progress. The stages began with something as simple as walking from the bed to a nearby sofa, and was ritually ended by going to church. There, the new mother would be religiously cleansed and had the opportunity to thank God for a full recovery.

1.4 Labor for pregnant women in modern days

Today, childbirth options are expanding rapidly to accommodate women during this strange and stressful time in their life. Traditional hospital delivery is just one of the many options women have. Giving birth in warm water tubs is growing in popularity although some find the procedure unsafe. Luxurious hospital birthing suites are now available and provide all the amenities of an upscale hotel. Some women prefer the comfort of their own home, but this procedure is risky due to the unpredictable nature of childbirth. If something were to go wrong, the proper equipment would not be available to fix the situation. Unlike the Victorian era when recovery lasted 4-6 weeks, new mothers are now released from the hospital within days of delivering their child.

2. Women and politics

2.1 Women rights

The women rights women started back in the late 1700's and 1800's, which set the stage for the rise of the women's movements. The reason for this is that many women grew increasingly dissatisfied with the limitations society had placed on their activities. This was known as the age of reason questioned established political and religious authority and stressed the importance of reason, equality, and liberty. The new intellectual atmosphere helped justify women's rights to full citizenship.

2.2 Laws that helped women

Beginning in the 1840's a series of laws were passed that began to allow women in marriage to have a bit more control. With the passage in 1839 of the Infants and Child Custody Act women were allowed take custody of their children under the age of seven if divorced or separated. They could not take custody if they had been found to be adulterous. Before this law the father was immediately awarded custody and it did not depend on the reasons for divorce. In 1857 secular divorce was established in England through the Matrimonial Causes Act/Divorce act. This allowed for the court to order payments to a divorced or estranged wife. The wife could inherit property, be sued and protect her wages from a husband who deserted her. She still could not get a divorce based only on her husband being an adulterer but a man could still divorce his wife solely for adultery. A woman had to prove that her husband had been cruel, deserted her or prove that incest had been committed obtain a divorce. As we move forward to 1870 the Married Women's Property Act allowed for women to keep their earnings and even inherit personal property and money. Everything else still belonged to her husband if she had acquired it before or after marriage. In 1883 the Custody Acts allowed for women to be awarded custody of children up to the age of 16. Slowly but surely women are gaining control over themselves, their children and their possessions. In 1882 a woman could finally keep all personal and real property that she had gotten before and during her marriage.

2.3 Feminists' view of law

Feminists' view of law as valedictory of male privilege and power has changed little since the 19th century. Both Victorian feminists as well as 20th century contemporary feminists find the law as supportive of male domination. While in the Victorian era, laws were more open in presenting women as subjected to male supremacy in accordance with Victorian sentiment and family division of labor, contemporary feminists also find contemporary law based on the privilege given the male. Both Victorian and contemporary feminist criticisms of the law rely on the liberal political theory of philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and John Locke to criticize their respective situations of injustice created by the law. At the same time, however, they find this same theory establishing of the male supremacy in law that these feminists seek to change. Both contemporary and Victorian feminist criticism of the legal theory supportive of the law find that by differentiating between a public sphere, i.e., work, commerce, industry and politics, and the private sphere which revolves around domesticity and the home, law reinforces the view of males as free, irresponsible, and autonomous, and of women as dependent and responsible for the essential work of rearing children and maintaining the private sphere of the home.

2.4 Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I [See Appendix B]. (7 September 1533 - 24 March 1603) was Queen of England, Queen of France (in name only), and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She is sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen (as she never married), Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, and was immortalized by Edmund Spenser as the Faerie Queene. Elizabeth I was the sixth and final monarch of the Tudor dynasty (the other Tudor monarchs having been her grandfather Henry VII, her father Henry VIII, her half-brother Edward VI, her cousin Jane (also known as the 9 days queen), and her half-sister Mary I). She reigned for 45 years, during a period marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide, as well as great religious turmoil within England.

2.4.1 Early life

Elizabeth, who was three years old when her mother died, was declared illegitimate and lost the title of Princess. She also lost the money and gifts her mother had routinely showered upon her. After Anne's death, she was addressed as Lady Elizabeth and lived separately from her father as he married his succession of wives. In 1537, her father's third wife, Jane Seymour, gave birth to a son, Prince Edward, who became the official heir to the throne under the Act of Succession 1543.

Queen Mary I imprisoned her half-sister, the Princess Elizabeth, in the Tower of London for suspected treason and collaboration with the traitor Thomas Wyatt.

As long as Edward VI, her half-brother, remained on the throne, Elizabeth's own position remained secure. In 1553, however, Edward died of tuberculosis and assorted other ailments, aged only fifteen. He left a will, in which he attempted to nullify his father's wishes for the succession: disregarding the Act of Succession 1543, the new document excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from succeeding to the throne and declared Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of Mary, Duchess of Suffolk (Henry VIII's sister) to be heiress. This change was part of a plan hastily thought up by the regent, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, who was determined to maintain his power and his reforms, and who had been surprised by Edward's sudden decline; with the connivance of Lady Jane's family, the Greys, Dudley married the heiress to his youngest son, Guilford Dudley. Upon Edward's death, Lady Jane ascended the throne, but was deposed less than two weeks later. Armed with popular support, Mary rode triumphantly into London, her half-sister Elizabeth at her side.

Following a moderate start to her reign, the Catholic Mary opted for a hard line against Protestants, whom she regarded as heretics and a threat to her authority. In the ensuing persecution she came to be known as "Bloody Mary". She urged Elizabeth to convert to the Roman Catholic faith, but Elizabeth, instead, kept up a skillful show of allegiance to suit her own conscience and ambitions. By the end of that year, when Mary was mistakenly rumoured to be pregnant, Elizabeth was allowed to return to court at Philip's behest. He worried that his wife might die in childbirth, in which case he preferred Lady Elizabeth, under his tutelage, to succeed rather than her next-closest relative, Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary of Scots had grown up in the French court and was betrothed to the French Dauphin and, although she was Catholic, Philip did not desire her to grasp the English crown because of the heavy French influence in her politics.

2.4.2 Early reign

In November 1558, upon Queen Mary's death, Elizabeth ascended the throne. She was far more popular than Mary, and it is said that after Mary's death the people rejoiced in the streets. Legend has it Elizabeth was sitting beneath an oak tree reading the Greek Bible at Hatfield when she was informed of her succession to the throne. As it was November and winter, it was unlikely Elizabeth would have been quietly reading but perhaps enjoying a brisk walk. A manservant approached her and breathlessly said, "Your Majesty…". Elizabeth then quoted Psalm 118 in response: "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes".

During her procession to the throne, she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the common people, who performed plays and read poetry exclaiming her beauty and intelligence. Elizabeth's coronation was on 15 January 1559. She was 25 years old. There was no Archbishop of Canterbury at the time; Reginald Cardinal Pole, the last Catholic holder of the office, had died shortly after Mary I. Since the senior bishops declined to participate in the coronation because Elizabeth was illegitimate under both canon law and statute and because she was a Protestant, the relatively unknown Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle crowned her. The communion was celebrated not by Oglethorpe, but by the Queen's personal chaplain, to avoid the usage of the Roman rites. Elizabeth I's coronation was the last one during which the Latin service was used; future coronations except for that of George I used the English service. She later persuaded her mother's chaplain, Matthew Parker, to become Archbishop.

One of the most important concerns during Elizabeth's early reign was religion. She relied primarily on Sir William Cecil (whom she called "Spirit") for advice on the matter. The Act of Uniformity 1559, which she passed shortly after ascending the throne, required the use of the Protestant Book of Common Prayer in church services. Communion with the Catholic Church had been reinstated under Mary I, but was ended by Elizabeth. The Queen assumed the title "Supreme Governor of the Church of England", rather than "Supreme Head", primarily because several bishops and many members of the public felt that a woman could not be the head of the Church.

2.4.3 Virginity

Although Elizabeth is referred to as the "Virgin Queen", because she never married, it is unclear whether she was literally a virgin. Even among her contemporaries she was a social and sexual enigma by refraining from marriage, sex, and childbirth. While a King was expected to keep a mistress or concubine it would have been politically dangerous for a woman to behave in the same manner. The sexuality of the sovereign was as important to the national psyche then as in her father's time -- though in a very different way.

It was advantageous in several ways for Elizabeth to retain her reputation as a virgin. Had she married, her status would not have changed from that of a queen regnant to a queen consort -- however, there were other consequences to consider. Because a Renaissance wife was expected to defer to a husband's authority, a reigning queen risked her political supremacy. Marital life might have created unwanted tension in the bedchamber, at home and abroad -- the marriages of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, were sufficient examples in that regard.

However, rumors of affairs abounded, one of the most enduring being with Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. In 1575 she was closely associated with the Earl of Sild's teenage son who blossomed under her patronage and remained a loyal companion to her until her death.

2.4.4 Plots and rebellions

At the end of 1562, Elizabeth fell ill with smallpox, but later recovered. In 1563, alarmed by the Queen's near-fatal illness, Parliament asked that she marry or nominate an heir to prevent civil war upon her death. She refused to do either, and in April, she prorogued Parliament.

Parliament did not reconvene until Elizabeth needed its assent to raise taxes in 1566. The House of Commons threatened to withhold funds until the Queen agreed to provide for the succession. On 19 October 1566, Sir Robert Bell boldly pursued Elizabeth for the royal answer despite her command to desist; in her own words "Mr. Bell with his complices must needs prefer their speeches to the upper house to have you my lords, consent with them, whereby you were seduced, and of simplicity did assent unto it”.

Also in 1572, Elizabeth made an alliance with France. The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, in which thousands of French Protestants (Huguenots) were killed, strained the alliance but did not break it.

Elizabeth even began marriage negotiations with Henry, Duke of Anjou (later King Henry III of France and of Poland), and afterwards with his younger brother Francois, Duke of Anjou and Alencon. During the latter's visit in 1581, it is said that Elizabeth "drew off a ring from her finger and put it upon the Duke of Anjou's upon certain conditions betwixt them two". The Spanish Ambassador reported that she actually declared that the Duke of Anjou would be her husband.

However, Anjou, who was reportedly scarred and hunch-backed, returned to France and died in 1584 before he could be married.

2.4.5 Death

The Queen's health remained good until the autumn of 1602, when a series of losses among her remaining friends appeared to throw her into a melancholy. In her depression, she was lethargic and silent, quite unlike her usual brisk manner. Then she fell silent. Her behaviour became eccentric. She stood upright, without relief, for two days, silent, with her finger held in her mouth like a tired child. It was as if she knew that, lying down, she would not rise again.

On March 21, 1603, the Lord Admiral finally persuaded the Queen to go to bed. They had to saw the Coronation Ring off her finger where it had grown into the flesh. She could no longer speak. Robert Cecil later alleged that she wordlessly signed to him that James VI of Scotland, son of Mary of Scotland, would be her heir. On March 24, with the Archbishop of Canterbury on his knees by her bed, praying with her women for her soul, she died, between two and three AM. Her physician later said it was like watching the falling of "a ripe apple from the tree." Elizabeth had ruled England for more than 44 years. A horseman was already travelling north to Scotland, and James VI, carrying her ring.

3. WOMEN IN EDUCATION