c. England Working-Class Women Compared to Ruth Hall

In Wales, England, Twenty-seven percent of the working-class women workers were paid 12s per week, with only a very small minority (2.2%) in well-paid work (Neale, 1967). Out of these underpaid women, only a minority of them were able to even focus their times and resources on finding a right to vote and have a voice.  They were trying to follow traditional sex roles, making them dependent, “reinforcced by the narrow range of experence available to the uneducated, making it difficult for working--class women to perceieve newer and higher goals, and create almost insuperable obstacles to effective mass political action” (Neale, 1967). They lacked power, which prevented them from entering the political system. Fanny Fern addressed poverty in a way that Jane Eyre could not. Bronte had Jane become poor, but she was able to use her education to get out again. Those in the working class in did not have that option. 

This image was made in 1879. It is slightly out of range from Jane Eyre, but it is important to realize that the struggles of the working-class women did not change quickly. The systemic cycles kept many of these women stuck in dependence from having a lack of access to training, and living day to day, instead of saving money. The women in poverty when Jane Eyre was published were very similar to the women fighting poverty in 1879. 

Hiley, Michael. Victorian Working Women: Portraits from Life. Godine, 1879.