women  explorers

During the Victorian Age, women were unlikely to become great explorers, but a few intelligent, gritty and brave women made major contributions to the study of previously little-understood territory.


Courtney Stephens examines three women -- Marianne North, Mary Kingsley and Alexandra David-Néel -- who wouldn't take no for an answer (and shows why we should be grateful that they didn't)..


In the Victorian Era, most women were house wives. These women stayed at home and tended to the house and family, but there were a small percentage of women that had other occupations. About 3% of all white women during the Victorian era and 25% of all black women were part of the working force and worked for wages.

Most of these women were either a maid, nurse, laundress, teacher, psychiatrist, or social worker. Since there were so few women who worked at these jobs, only 9 out of every 10 homes had domestic help (maid, nurse, or laundress).

Besides these jobs there is also another way that some wives stayed at home and earned money. This was by farming; some farm wives earned money from selling butter, milk, and other farm products that they produced on their farm.

female explorers during victorian era

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future female explorers in the making