ABSTRACT
The demand for expanded opportunities for work was a key concern of the women's movement in Victorian England. This chapter discusses the 'idea' of work, its logic and its attractions for Victorian feminists. Far from viewing work as a regrettable necessity, feminists of this generation saw work as a desideratum for all individuals regardless of sex and invested work with existential hopes that were both religious and secular in character. These feminists' 'idea' of work was comprehensive. It included both waged and unwaged labour and might include women's domestic responsibilities as well. Mid-Victorian feminists were not indifferent to women's material needs. Feminists anticipated a variety of moral gains from expanding women's opportunities for work. Most mid-Victorian feminists were middle class in origin, and in one of its aspects their advocacy of a work ethic can be seen as advancing a middle-class ideal, distancing them both from the idle rich and the destitute poor.
