The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal by Deborah Gorham, 1982

The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal by Deborah Gorham\n\nPublished by Indiana University Press 1982\nISBN:  9780253362582\nCondition:  Acceptable\nDescription:\nHardcover. First edition with dustcover (in cellophane). Minor creases to page facing Contents, previous owner's name on ffep and some sporadic pencil marginalia and underlining in opening chapters. \nThe author was at Carleton Unversity, Ottawa. The text examines Victorian ideas of girlhood within the context of the family and the upbringing of middle class girls. There are three sections (with notes at the end of each individual chapter): the first is concerned with the image of the family, the second, the advice in printed sources, and the third, actual experience across three generations and socioeconomic range, from lower to upper middle class. One chapter focuses on how at puberty any pretensions to gender equality 'abruptly ceased'. Not only were girls disadvantaged but the 'more affluent.