The death of a husband had adverse economic effects for the majority of Victorian women, but for ... more The death of a husband had adverse economic effects for the majority of Victorian women, but for working-class mothers the threat of destitution was an almost inevitable feature of widowhood. Widows, with some restrictions, were entitled to outdoor relief under the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834), and they comprised the largest group of adult paupers outside of the workhouse well into the early twentieth century, outnumbered only and always by their children. Able-bodied widows therefore presented crucial opportunities for poor law officials in the quest to minimise outdoor relief and make significant reductions in welfare spending. Focusing particularly on the 1830s, 1840s, and 1870s (the first decade of the so-called crusade against out-relief), this article examines the competing discourses of deservingness and deception that dominated the representations and treatment of able-bodied widows in poor law legislation, orders, reports, and parliamentary debates. An uneasy combination of sympathy and suspicion shaped officials' treatment of these women, rendering them ambiguous figures in the dominant dichotomy of the deserving and undeserving poor, potential drains on the economic prosperity of the state, threats to the nuclear family, and, by extension, a danger to the nation's moral core. These discourses, I suggest, reflect a wider ideological unease with and attempts to mitigate and police the widow's exceptional social status in Victorian Britain as a woman with sexual experience, potential economic independence, yet no male guardian.
This is a pdf of the the Accepted Manuscript of the article.
The widow was a much-satirised figure throughout the Victorian era, but humour has rarely feature... more The widow was a much-satirised figure throughout the Victorian era, but humour has rarely featured in studies concerned with the period’s attitudes towards women and death. Widows, whose behaviour and dress were subject to many a rule, found themselves the focus of a wealth of jests and jibes that simultaneously highlighted and attempted to mitigate and police widowed women’s exceptional position in Victorian society. This article considers some of the most common comical types of widows in Victorian popular culture in jokes, novels, comic songs, and sketches. I argue that it is in the realm of laughter in general, and in the comical iterations of the widow in particular, that we find some of the period’s most revealing engagements with the contradictions and ambiguities of middle-class notions of womanhood, femininity, and female sexuality. From unashamed cackles of hilarity to sniggers of discomfort and sneers of disapproval, humour allowed for an exploration of the moral conflicts borne out of the widow’s identity as a woman who had once fulfilled her duty as a wife but could transgress and threaten the relational confines of normative femininity and the nuclear family. This the Accepted Manuscript of the article, published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Gender Studies on 11 September 2020. You can the final published version for free here: https://hes32-ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.tandfonline.com%2feprint%2fXRNRZJEGHEXQFE5GER2U%2ffull%3ftarget%3d10.1080%2f09589236.2020.1819777&umid=e5d29ca4-8f5d-4f2d-b928-13c1960aa753&auth=768f192bba830b801fed4f40fb360f4d1374fa7c-dc50db373bfabd3a23b820762f158347dc4b3260.
The death of a husband had adverse economic effects for the majority of Victorian women, but for ... more The death of a husband had adverse economic effects for the majority of Victorian women, but for working-class mothers the threat of destitution was an almost inevitable feature of widowhood. Widows, with some restrictions, were entitled to outdoor relief under the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834), and they comprised the largest group of adult paupers outside of the workhouse well into the early twentieth century, outnumbered only and always by their children. Able-bodied widows therefore presented crucial opportunities for poor law officials in the quest to minimise outdoor relief and make significant reductions in welfare spending. Focusing particularly on the 1830s, 1840s, and 1870s (the first decade of the so-called crusade against out-relief), this article examines the competing discourses of deservingness and deception that dominated the representations and treatment of able-bodied widows in poor law legislation, orders, reports, and parliamentary debates. An uneasy combination of sympathy and suspicion shaped officials' treatment of these women, rendering them ambiguous figures in the dominant dichotomy of the deserving and undeserving poor, potential drains on the economic prosperity of the state, threats to the nuclear family, and, by extension, a danger to the nation's moral core. These discourses, I suggest, reflect a wider ideological unease with and attempts to mitigate and police the widow's exceptional social status in Victorian Britain as a woman with sexual experience, potential economic independence, yet no male guardian.
This is a pdf of the the Accepted Manuscript of the article.
The widow was a much-satirised figure throughout the Victorian era, but humour has rarely feature... more The widow was a much-satirised figure throughout the Victorian era, but humour has rarely featured in studies concerned with the period’s attitudes towards women and death. Widows, whose behaviour and dress were subject to many a rule, found themselves the focus of a wealth of jests and jibes that simultaneously highlighted and attempted to mitigate and police widowed women’s exceptional position in Victorian society. This article considers some of the most common comical types of widows in Victorian popular culture in jokes, novels, comic songs, and sketches. I argue that it is in the realm of laughter in general, and in the comical iterations of the widow in particular, that we find some of the period’s most revealing engagements with the contradictions and ambiguities of middle-class notions of womanhood, femininity, and female sexuality. From unashamed cackles of hilarity to sniggers of discomfort and sneers of disapproval, humour allowed for an exploration of the moral conflicts borne out of the widow’s identity as a woman who had once fulfilled her duty as a wife but could transgress and threaten the relational confines of normative femininity and the nuclear family. This the Accepted Manuscript of the article, published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Gender Studies on 11 September 2020. You can the final published version for free here: https://hes32-ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.tandfonline.com%2feprint%2fXRNRZJEGHEXQFE5GER2U%2ffull%3ftarget%3d10.1080%2f09589236.2020.1819777&umid=e5d29ca4-8f5d-4f2d-b928-13c1960aa753&auth=768f192bba830b801fed4f40fb360f4d1374fa7c-dc50db373bfabd3a23b820762f158347dc4b3260.
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This is a pdf of the the Accepted Manuscript of the article.
This is a pdf of the the Accepted Manuscript of the article.