How did the development of a consumer society transform employment possibilities for women?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. It was considered unseemly for women of the middle or upper classes to work, although one might be permitted to assist her husband. The concept of separate spheres, based on the Victorian model, delineated expected behaviors and acceptable realms for women in the nineteenth century. In rare cases, women could be teachers, but it was seen as a dreadful loss of status to need to take on employment as a governess or occasionally as a secretary; most professional positions were held by men. In the lower classes, factory work was entirely the norm, and women participated in the work environment as domestic servants, cleaning women, and merchants in stalls, but these jobs were not seen as opportunities for women of the middle classes. In the late nineteenth century, however, the development of the commercial market created by industrialization and mass production offered more opportunities. At Bon Marché, for example, hundreds of young women were hired as clerks in the department store. Other types of jobs available for the lower middle classes included teachers, nurses, clerks, typists, and telephone operators. These jobs were seen as more respectable and they paid more, allowing women the opportunity for personal autonomy and social prestige.