What did the Victorians expect a woman to think about?

Victorians generally did not want women to have lives outside of the home.  A young Victorian woman’s goal was to find a good marriage, at a reasonably young age so she did not seem like a spinster, that would enrich her.  In the upper classes, women married within their ranks and the marriage would support them for life.

Unless a woman was working class, she spent her time with hobbies.  There was often a nanny and a corps of other household servants, leaving the woman free to entertain, supervise, and be there for her husband.  It was the woman’s job to make sure that the household of servants ran smoothly, and that everything was fashionable.

A Victorian woman should be educated, so that she knew French and Latin, and could also play an instrument, sing, and do crafts.  Women did not need to work around the house, so they would do needlepoints and other hand crafts.  Women took walks and visited other women.  Being fashionable and wearing the right dresses, hats, and shawls was very important.  Young ladies attended dances, and everyone vacationed in holiday towns like Bath for weeks at a time.

Victorians believed that novels were inappropriate for women to read, but they were popular nonetheless.  Many were even written by women, including Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Mary Shelley.  Victorians loved Gothic fiction, with stories about big manor houses and spooky visitations.

If you were a working-class woman, you had very different things to think about.  Many men and even some women went to work in factories in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.  Young ladies who could not marry into rich families often had to become governesses or other household servants.  If a man owed debts, the entire family could end up in debtor's prison.  Life was not easy if you were poor.