This book explodes the myth of the passive Victorian woman, and demonstrates how women rose to the challenges of the age of empire and industry. Queen Victoria herself had a profound impact on her female subjects. She strongly influenced their attitudes to marriage, motherhood and bereavement. It was during her reign that many pioneering women pushed back the boundaries of the masculine world, and fought for recognition of their skills as doctors, teachers, artists and adventurers. In addition, the daily struggles of countless working women are movingly presented, based on the evidence of novels, paintings and their own first-hand accounts