The woman question referred to the fundamental role of woman in society and about what women want. It is also a question about the woman ideology, the body rights of women, their medical rights, whether they should have leagl rights. By possessing rights for example working women would be dethroned as the queen of the house if she moved move private to public space. The woman question was debated in the 19th century time(In Europe and in the United States) and it was contested that it was against God's will.
References relating to be a Governess in Jane Eyre
Page 85 Miss Fairfax reveals to Jane that Mr Rochester commissioned her to find a governess for Adele.
Page 97 Jane on meeting Mr Rochester for the first time reveals that she is a governess at Thornfield Hall
Women were stimulated by the Industrial revolution to work officially since there were not enough men to work. This led to insecurity in society and this is the main theme in Poovey extract. Private and Public boundaries started to weaken as women moved into men's work. The ideology of women staying and working at home still remained after they moved into men's work and scientific methods were used to try and maintain the staus-quo. This ideology is based on who has control and who could have had control. The position of the governess is one of the jobs women performed and found themselves in peculiar positions beacuse of this means of employment.
Poovey describes the governess as "the figure that epitomizes the domestic ideal, and the figure who threatened to destroy it". The role of the governess was the domestic ideal as the governess worked at home and looked after the children and educated them. That was what women were meant to do and by practising those duties, the governess fulfilled society's view of what women should be. However, the governess threatened to destroy the domestic ideal because she got paid for her duties. This totally went against society's norm at the time as women were not meant to be paid to do home duties. So governesses were viewed as a threat. They men felt challenged by the woman because by getting employment and payment, the women wre considered independent from the men and were empowered thereby having the ability to challenge superiority. This independence allowed women to challenge for property, divorce and custody right as described in Poovey's article. The church described the phenomena as being against God's will but there was really nothing anyone could do because the number of jobs exceeded the men.
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