Social investigation and organisation of philanthropic work in the Victorian period relied on the voluntary work of women in order to achieve success.[1] The voluntary work of nineteenth-century middle-class women demonstrates the importance of women in social investigation and that they were becoming increasingly significant in the public sphere. Middle-class women, acting as social investigators, pioneered the use of “door-to-door” surveys to gain insight into the lives of working-class families.[2] These surveys were presented in statistical tables, diagrams or maps and then used by the government to make decisions regarding poor relief. Throughout the nineteenth century, there was an increase in the number of women working as social investigators; they used their work to increase the level of authority they held in the public sphere.[3]

 

Women entered the field of social investigation, with the intention to fulfil their moral duty or to satisfy their own self-interests. For instance, Beatrice Webb (née Potter) became a social investigator with her own personal interests in mind. She had high hopes of developing her observation skills whilst investigating slum women and becoming well-known for her work without being recognised for her gender.[4] This level of self-interest demonstrates how middle-class women used social investigation to liberate themselves from the private sphere. However, the idea that women were expected to volunteer for philanthropic work to be viewed as a successful woman was a prominent reason for entering the field. Historically it has been argued that women were involved in social investigation to fulfil traditional gender roles; by working towards the “fulfilment of others” they were expanding domestic life into the public sphere and setting their own desires aside.[5]

Social Investigators and Female Emancipation

Investigatory work was used by women to enter the public sphere and increase their involvement in the field of science.[6] In the nineteenth century, the number of social investigators increased, specifically the number of female investigators from the middle-class. It was common for middle-class women to enter the slum as social investigators under the premise of being ‘do-gooders’ and were often considered to be part-taking in such activities as a consequence of domestic boredom.[7] However, this was not the case. Women such as Beatrice Webb, Margaret Harkness and Amy Levy used their role to resist domestic stereotypes; this influenced their work as they were known for rejecting the idea that their work must be a reflection of domestic duties and respect “rigid notions of sexual difference”.[8] This resistance of social norms demonstrates the beginnings of female emancipation in the nineteenth century that permeated all social classes to varying degrees.

Middle-class women were indirectly emancipated by social investigating as it provided middle-class women with the opportunity and freedom to enter the previously forbidden public sphere.[9] Contrastingly, social investigation was, to an extent, responsible for opposing emancipation in the lower social classes.[10] In the nineteenth century, social investigation was used as a form of social control, this is demonstrated by gender oppression witnessed in the lower classes. There was fear of social unrest and a domestic revolution that would consequently result in a “revolutionary proletariat”; however, had the bourgeois truly feared social unrest, more effective control would have been concluded by the passing of legal statutes.[11] This suggests that although the social investigator was responsible for women in the lower class not necessarily gaining more freedoms this was not sustained.

Beatrice Webb is a prime example of feminism in the slum, she took advantage of the “avocation of slumming” to enter the East End as both a member of the Charity Organisation Society and as a rent collector.[12] As a rent collector, Webb had unsolicited access to the slum community. This is demonstrated in her diaries, figure 2 is a prime example of this.

She recorded the tenant’s occupation, familial connections and their general well-being. These aspects of slum life were at the heart of social investigation as they aided other investigators and government in understanding how the slum community worked and how gender was seen within the slum. Henry Mayhew suggested that female social investigators were unable to complete their work without the assistance of guides, however, in her work as a rent collector Beatrice Webb defies this theory.[13] Webb’s recollection of the tenants she observed demonstrated a lack of gendered ideas, suggesting she projected her own desire of being viewed by her profession before her gender onto slum residents.[14] The desire for her achievements to be separate from her gender suggests that Webb used her work to emancipate herself from traditional middle-class stereotypes. Moreover, despite Webb originally signing the 1889 petition against women’s suffrage, she later informed Frederic Harrison of her regret and spoke of “future massacre of women” when they were pushed beyond male patience.[15]

 

 

Once female investigators were able to exist in the public domain they were able to use their gender to create bonds with slum residents. For example, Webb and Besant successfully used their position to move between class boundaries and connect with their “slum sisters”.[16] This connection allowed female investigators to gain depth perceptions of women in the slum. Prostitution, for instance, was prominent in the slum as prostitutes challenged stereotypes concerning “gendered morality”.[17] As female social investigators challenged gender stereotypes they were able to create better connections with this demographic. Social investigators focussed on the dynamics of class and gender within the slum, creating what critics called “urban slumming”. Margaret Harkness explored how middle-class women used status in order to gain authority over the slum; she presented her findings in the novel In Darkest London and represents how the opportunities of London attracted aspiring female novelists and social investigators.[18]

In conclusion, middle-class women emancipated themselves and their slum sisters from traditional gender roles through their work as social investigators. Middle-class women recognised the opportunity provided to them with investigatory work and were able to break into the public domain. Subsequently, as these women gained authority and freedom they recognised their responsibility to give the lower classes a voice.[19] Women pioneered investigatory techniques and were imperative in the success of the field; further demonstrating that through their work as social investigators women were able to revolutionise both the field and their lives.

[1]Summers, S., ‘A Home From Home – Women’s Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century’, in Burman, S., Fit Work for Women, (London: Croom Helm in association with Oxford University Women’s Studies Committee, 1979), p. 33

[2]Thompson, E. P., and Yeo, E., The Unknown Mayhew, (London: Merlin Press, 1971), p. 53

[3]Brooke-Cameron, S. and Dunleavy, M., ‘Angels of the Slum: Women and Slumming in Margaret Harkness’s In Darkest London’, Papers on Language and Literature, Vol. 51, Issue 2 (2015), p. 110

[4]Lewis, J., Women and Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England, (Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 1991), p. 303

[5]Brooke-Cameron, S. and Dunleavy, M., ‘Angels of the Slum: Women and Slumming in Margaret Harkness’s In Darkest London’, Papers on Language and Literature, Vol. 51, Issue 2 (2015), p. 130

[6]Nord, D., ‘“Neither Pairs nor Odd”: Female Community in Late Nineteenth-Century London’, Signs, Vol. 15, No.4 (Summer, 1990), p. 742

[7]Summers, S., ‘A Home From Home – Women’s Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century’, in Burman, S., Fit Work for Women, (London: Croom Helm in association with Oxford University Women’s Studies Committee, 1979), p. 38

[8]Summers, S., ‘A Home From Home – Women’s Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century’, in Burman, S., Fit Work for Women, (London: Croom Helm in association with Oxford University Women’s Studies Committee, 1979), p. 33

[9]Vicinus, M., Independent Women: Work & Community for Single Women, 1850-1920, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), p. 220

[10]Summers, S., ‘A Home From Home – Women’s Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century’, in Burman, S., Fit Work for Women, (London: Croom Helm in association with Oxford University Women’s Studies Committee, 1979), p. 33

[11]Prochaska, F., ‘Philanthropy’ in Thompson, F., The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750 – 1950, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 371

[12]Nord, D., ‘“Neither Pairs nor Odd”: Female Community in Late Nineteenth-Century London’, Signs, Vol. 15, No.4 (Summer, 1990), p. 740

[13]Sales, R., ‘Platform, Performance and Payment in Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor’ in Campbell, K., Journalism, Literature and Modernity; from Hazlitt to Modernism, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), p. 59

[14]Nord, D., ‘“Neither Pairs nor Odd”: Female Community in Late Nineteenth-Century London’, Signs, Vol. 15, No.4 (Summer, 1990), p. 753

[15]Lewis, J., Women and Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England, (Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 1991), p. 9

[16]Brooke-Cameron, S. and Dunleavy, M., ‘Angels of the Slum: Women and Slumming in Margaret Harkness’s In Darkest London’, Papers on Language and Literature, Vol. 51, Issue 2 (2015), p. 111

[17]Poovey, M., ‘Anatomical realism and social investigation in early nineteenth-century Manchester’, A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 5.3 (Fall 1993)

[18]Nord, D., ‘“Neither Pairs nor Odd”: Female Community in Late Nineteenth-Century London’, Signs, Vol. 15, No.4 (Summer, 1990), p. 734

[19]Ross, E., ‘Slum journeys: ladies and London poverty 1860-1940’, in Mayne A. and Murray, T., The Archaeology of Urban Landscapes: Explorations in Slumland, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 17

Illustrations

Figure 1 – Map of Boundary Street, London, c. 1903. Available online: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/17261?position=77   

Date Accessed: 22/11/18

Figure 2 – Beatrice Webb Diary Extract (13 September 1873-13 September 1877), p. 42 from LSE Digital Library ‘Street Life in London’ Collection. Available online: https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:zem693juy

Date Accessed: 06/11/18