Sex and sensibility in cultural history: the English governess and the lunatic asylum, 1845-1914.
This chapter is concerned with the experience of the Victorian governess and other female teachers in the lunatic asylum during the Victorian period. There is now a formidable and complex literature on the governess but little discussion of her experience behind the walls of the asylum. The chapter offers two kinds of comparison: the distinctive pattern of care of governesses in three different institutions in Victorian Devon; and secondly, the progress of those identified as 'governess' with other groups of female teachers in the same period. A number of interesting contrasts emerge. The evidence also indicates the importance of cultural and social influences in the construction of the persona of the female teacher.
Centre for Medical History at the University of Exeter.
Joseph
J
Melling
D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000266:history; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006663:Historiography; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history / Q000628:therapy; D012737:Sex Factors; D012945:Social Values; D016387:Women's Health / Q000266:history*; D014931:Women, Working / Q000266:history*