In 1842, the U.K. Parliament passed the Mines Act. Aimed at alleviating some of the most horrid byproducts of England’s rapid transformation from an agrarian economic model to an industrial economic model, the law disallowed women of any age from seeking employment in the mining industry, and set the minimum age for prospective male employees at ten years old. While the act was a certainly a triumph for social progress as it pertained to the exploitation of children’s labor, it also had the less – intended consequence of denying middle – class and poverty stricken families with multiple sources of income in many cases. Consequently, women in Victorian society were compelled to seek other, less regulated employment opportunities. Among the most common of alternative employment options for 19^th century women who had been denied access to the more traditional contemporary labor markets by virtue of industrial – era reform efforts was prostitution. As has been made apparent during our semester studying Victorian female literature, and examining what that literature reveals about the socio – political realities of 19^th century life for women, the Victorian society tended to encourage female domestication. It is ironic then that a legislative effort that was intended in part to keep women out of the workforce and encouraged domestication resulted in the widespread embrace by women of a far less puritanical occupation than coal – mining. In a sense, the adoption of prostitution by a considerable number of Victorian women was a definitive rejection of the limitations imposed upon them and the superficial nature of Victorian gender roles. Furthermore, it is emblematic of the larger imperative stressed by progressive female minds of the day for women to attain a sense of financial and practical autonomy, so as not to be wholly dependent on men. It also serves as a pre – cursor to the repudiation of conservative notions regarding female sexuality that would animate the feminist movement of later generations.

Sources:

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/victorian-era-prostitution

https://miningactof1842.weebly.com/the-mining-act-of-1842.html