Victorian Era society has long been discussed as a period of change in the traditional social and political hierarchies in England, due largely to the Industrial Revolution and the continued instability of the monarchy itself. The four main class distinctions of the time were the upper class, which consisted of royalty and the very wealthy: the middle class, represented by educated professionals; the working class, dominated by those with sparse to no education; and the underclass, the very poor. It was extremely rare to advance in social class for British citizens at the time.
The Upper Class
Before the Victorian Era, the highest defined social class was limited to those born into the British royal families. Because of scientific advancements fueling the Industrial Revolution, the attainment of wealth and power was no longer limited to those of noble birth. The newly defined Victorian era upper class included the royal families of England and the very wealthy families who made their vast fortunes through savvy business investments and profitable farms.
Members of Britain's upper class did not perform manual labor; rather, they invested money in technological advancements that improved productivity for their businesses. In addition to economic dominance, members of the upper class wielded a great deal of political and social power. Because owning land was required to vote or run for office, the British upper class almost exclusively controlled the political landscape of the time.
The Middle Class
Although they remained the smallest population of the four major class groups, the middle class emerged during the Victorian era as a direct result of the Industrial Revolution. The middle class was defined as those members of society who held white-collar jobs, such as factory managers, doctors, or small business owners. Like the upper class, the Victorian era middle class had access to education for themselves and future generations. However, unlike the upper class, members of the middle class worked for their wages. They wielded some political power though it was minimal compared to the upper class.
The Working Class
The working class represented the majority of Britain's population in the 19th century. Together with the underclass, they were largely unrepresented in government and had virtually no economic or social power. The working class was the successors of the earlier defined peasant class, and their living and working conditions were equally as bad as previous generations.
The most successful of the working class were those with a definable skill, such as a blacksmith or a potter, which earned them some respect within society. Unskilled laborers largely worked in factories with deplorable conditions and were paid poorly for their work.
The growing demand for factory laborers in the 19th century put a strain on the workforce, and as a direct result, there was a notable increase in child labor in factories and mines. Families were often forced to choose employment over schooling for their children, which further cemented any hope of upward economic mobility.
The Underclass
The underclass was represented by the poorest of Britain's citizens. This class comprised petty criminals, the unemployed, the homeless, and prostitutes. With no welfare or unemployment system in place, it was nearly impossible to rise above this class station.
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The same labor demands that exacerbated child labor during the Victorian Era created some modest opportunities for women. Many factories opened their doors to women, offering women some financial independence. Women joining the workforce started reshaping the traditional gender-based family roles that had long been in place.
It was not uncommon for unwed mothers or mothers who had been abandoned by their children's fathers to accept factory work to support their families, but this left a gap in childcare. Without the option of modern-day care facilities, many mothers were forced to leave their children in the care of "baby farmers," who were other women, often residing in country-side areas, that fostered children of working mothers. Working mothers would send a portion of their income to these "baby farmers" in exchange for their child's room and board. With no standardized childcare laws in place, these children were often forced to work on farms and had little opportunities for education. This necessity to break up the family unit was often met with a negative social stigma as it was a deviation from the ideal family standard modeled by Queen Victoria herself.
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The Victorian Era, 1837-1901, is a period in British history characterized by the reign of Queen Victoria. During this period, Britain's economy was growing, and its socio-economic landscape changed as a result. Britain's class structure was redefined in the 19th century to include the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the underclass. The upper class had previously been restricted to members of British royal families but was revised to include wealthy merchants and landowners who were not aristocratic by birth. The middle class was redefined as educated white-collar workers such as administrators and managers. The working class, which represented the majority of Britain's population, were uneducated laborers, both skilled and unskilled. Members of the underclass were most notably the unemployed, homeless, criminals, and prostitutes. The social class distinctions were significant in that they defined people's social and political power within Victorian society.
Though women were able to make some humble social and economic advancements during the Victorian Era, childcare and child labor-related issues were troublesome for families. The lack of educational opportunities for most of England's population closed the door for advancement and solidified one's place in a rigid class-based system.
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Video Transcript
Victorian England
In 1837, an 18-year old woman named Victoria was facing a world in which her grandfather, her father, and all three of her uncles had died. This was especially complicated because her grandfather was King George III, monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. With Victoria as Queen, England stretched its empire across the entire world. British industry redefined global technology, and British society became the standard for the Western world. In fact, we call the era of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) the Victorian era. Queen Victoria herself became an icon of proper civility, and English society in this time became obsessed with propriety. This meant different things for different people since English society also developed a strict system of social hierarchy, or the levels of power people had in society. In this class-based structure, everybody had their place, and mobility between classes was a practical impossibility. Let's take a look at these classes and see what life in Victorian England meant to people throughout society.
The Upper Class
The class system that was adopted under Queen Victoria was very strict, and designed to keep certain people in power. The upper class was at the very top of the social pyramid. In the previous systems of power, these were the aristocrats and land-owning elites. In Victorian England, the upper class had absolute political and economic power. Since the right to vote in the 19th century was dependent on owning property, members of the upper class were practically the only ones who could either vote or hold political office. They were also the only group with guaranteed access to education, which was exclusive and expensive. What really defined the upper class, however, was the fact that they did not work. Members of the upper class owned land and property, inherited from their families, and made their money through investments in business or the profits gained from their lands.
The upper class was almost entirely exclusive - one had to be born into it. It was extremely difficult to gain the wealth needed to gain this sort of social power, but even within this group, there were impermeable divisions. At the very top were royalty, those with genetically inherited royal titles. Below them were middle and lower members of the upper class, people whose families had more recently gained access to membership at the top of society, generally through military or business acumen in the expanding, industrial empire.
The Middle Class
Below the upper class was the middle class, made up of people who worked, but not with their hands. They were white-collar managers or administrators. Some were owners of factories, and others were middle-management, but these people had more financial stability and access to things like education than the average factory worker. Industry grew immensely in Victorian England, allowing for the first real expansion of a middle class in England's history. However, it was still a very small group of people by modern standards. Most people in Britain were either on the very top or the very bottom. Only a few managed to occupy this middle ground.
The Working Class
Moving down the social ladder, we come upon the working class. These were the people who worked with their hands. In the traditional British system a century earlier, these people would have been called peasants. They had little to no political rights except what the British legislature decided on their behalf, and they had little access to education or anything else that would allow them to move up the social ladder. Their grandparents were agricultural peasants, they were laborers in the industrial cities of the 19th century, and their children could expect to be the same thing. They rented their homes, worked for very little pay and no benefits, and their lives depended entirely on the mercy of their bosses.
There was a slight distinction made between the skilled and unskilled laborers of the working class in Victorian England. Skilled laborers were trained craftsmen or artisans who were taught by a master to perfect their craft. They weren't well paid, but they did receive a level of respect. Unskilled laborers were essentially factory workers who often did little more than crank a lever for hours upon hours. As the Industrial Revolution expanded, the demand for unskilled laborers grew, although their salaries and rights did not.
The Underclass
At the very bottom of the Victorian social hierarchy, we find the underclass, those who were even less financially stable than the working class, including the impoverished, the homeless, and the street criminals and prostitutes. Basically, people who begged for money on the streets were in this group. In an era of economic competition with no unemployment benefits or welfare systems of any kind, getting out of the underclass was difficult to impossible. However, an unskilled laborer who got fired could find himself and his family demoted to this position very easily. Following the strict moral standards of Queen Victoria, the upper class fiercely debated what they should do about the underclass. Should they use their wealth to help the unemployed, or would charity make these people lazy and discontent? Should prostitution be allowed so that these women could feed themselves, or was it immoral in a Christian society? It took over a century for England to answer these questions, and the class system remained a rigid reality of Victorian life.
Lesson Summary
The reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901 is remembered as the Victorian era. One of its defining features was a strict class system, consisting of a social hierarchy with very little room for mobility. At the top were the upper class, the royals and land-owning elites who did not work but lived off of their family wealth and new investments. Below them were the middle class, a small group of people who worked their way into administrative and managerial positions. However, most of society was composed of the working class, those who performed manual labor throughout the industrial cities. At the very bottom were the under class, or the completely impoverished. It wasn't an easy world to live in, but for nearly a century this was English life.
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