The real housewives of the 1800's

If you read the piece on Athenian housewives then you must know how dreadful being a,literally speaking, kept woman was. Fast forward a thousand plus years and...well it wasn't that much better.
The Victorian age saw the rise of the middle class, the dawn of the industrial revolution and the surge of domestic servants and prostitution. During the 1800's the economic shift that replaced aristocracy with a middle class created a desire to excel in social status. Yup, it's keeping up with the Jones', and if you guys are making the same money and have the same power what can you try to out do the other in? I introduce you to gentility.
This is the time where we see a rush of books on etiquette purchased to be given to all ladies of the home and young girls. A time where the wives were to be unburdened by any form of household work, making domestic service one of the largest employments for women. The idea of educating women may have been on the horizon but it certainly was not common place. Women were still second class citizens and, for the most part, property of her husband; property, however, that was also considered somewhat untouchable. Think china doll. This is the time when women had no clue as to their anatomy, no instruction on sex or sexuality and it was a widely held belief that virtuous women were very seldom capable of full sexual desire. The modesty of a Victorian woman was so highly regarded that only during extreme cases was there to be a gynecological exam, and those were done in the dark.
SO let's see you have a wife with too much time on her hands,no responsibility, no sexual satisfaction and no education. What is a girl to do? Why shopping, gossiping and lallygagging of course (think the Bravo channels' 'real housewives of Orange county' program).
The view on sex at this time had taken another turn. Wives were thought to be intolerant of such an act like coitus and the religious theme was to have sex with your spouse only for procreational purposes (there was no sex allowed during her pregnancy and certainly not during her period). Men, on the other hand, were allowed to have sex without love or extreme passion to prostitutes, mainly as a biological release for their well being. So guess what profession jumps up in number along with domestic service?
Prostitution fills the western world and again like in old Athens (but minus the education and political influence), women see a way to make good money and have Independence, especially with no Vice squad in the police department.
Yes, Victorian housewives had a pretty dull existence, but it was the last that women would be seen as second to men and that wives would be seen as property or responsibility. This would be the time when society takes the prototype offered for thousands of years and in it's place creates dual income, marriage counseling, 'better sex for couples' books and stay at home dad's. Though we still had to get through the 1950's.