The Restriction of Women Through the Use of Fashion
Image of Women's Fashion During the Victorian Era
This image depicts women's fashion during the Victorian Era. Women's clothes were bulky and unfomfortable, and even required assistance when getting dressed.
Throughout time, those in power seek out ways to assert their control over those who they deem inferior to themselves. One of the groups who have historically been on the losing side of this ongoing power struggle are women. As you will read in other pages of the exhibit, there are many ways in which women are controlled by society, and forced to conform to many gender stereotypes that use their femininity against them. On this page, we will explore the role that women’s fashion in all of this. As you will see, women’s clothing can be culturally, physically, and economically restrictive, which further restricts women in a world where they are already at a disadvantage. Whether it be the lack of pockets in women's pants or the tight nature of popular women's fashion trends, women's clothing impacts women in ways that are often overlooked or ignored. Beginning in the Victorian Era, there were many ways in which women's clothing made it difficult to participate in a world that was primarily dominated by men. Though women's fashion has changed dramatically over the past century, many of the underlying ways in which women's clothing inhibits women still remain to this day, which is something that we will be exploring in this site. It is important to understand that women's fashion has a much greater impact on women than people realize. It impacts how people view them, and also how they view themselves.