The social and political values of the nineteenth century generally did not provide an opportunity for women to be active in public life, to have a career, to own property, to make economic decisions for themselves or to exert any substantial control over decision-making in their lives. Many women did not actively seek to change the situation, because they believed, or at least accepted, the social values of their time.

Women, overall, had very few rights; however women of the lower classes actually had more rights than women of the higher class. Women of the lower classes did venture into the workforce,

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