Clothing : A Social History

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• Questions
• Summary

1. Men and women dressed differently. Men were supposed to be strong, independent, aggressive while women were supposed to be weak, dependent and docile.
2. Their clothes were designed accordingly. The women wore dresses which accentuated a slim waist.
3. They had to wear a corset to show a small waist. Though it hurt, this pain and suffering were accepted as normal for a woman.

1. Women believed in the ideals of womanhood.
2. From childhood, they grew up to believe that having a small waist was a womanly duty.
3. To be seen as attractive, to be womanly, they had to wear the corset.
4. Over the nineteenth century, ideas changed. By the 1830s, women in England began agitating for democratic rights.
5. As the suffrage movement developed, many began campaigning for dress reform.
6. Tight dresses and corsets caused deformities and illness among young girls.
7. Tight dresses restrict body growth and hampered blood circulation.
8. There was agitation against women’s clothes in Europe as well as in America.
9. Doctors explained the ill effects of tight clothes which affected the spine and long flowing gowns which were unhygienic.
10. It was argued by these movements that if women wore loose and comfortable clothes, they could start working and become independent.