The evolving role of women in Victorian England is the main subject of George Gissing's The Odd Women. Gissing's novel deals with the struggle that many English women faced in the later part of the nineteenth century as they struggled for independence and finding means to support themselves. Prior to the women's equal rights movement, which began in the middle part of the 1800s, women were either expected to marry or follow careers as nurses, governesses, servants or teachers as their main means of survival. However, as English society advanced and the life expectancy of women began to exceed that of men's English women began to have more and more difficulty in obtaining a suitable income (Gissing 338).

When Gissing's novel was published in 1893, the number of women exceeded the number of men by over 500,000. This made it impossible for every woman to find a husband and also led to too many women entering the "traditional" female fields mentioned above. Women were forced to find new jobs to support themselves such as the clerical and business realms. For the women not lucky enough to find a suitable husband or who lacked the education necessary for a professional life the alternatives wer

Gissing illustrates the employment problems faced by Victorian women quite well in The Odd Women, dealing mainly with the working class. Gissing manages to cover all the opportunities available to women and the pros and cons of these options. Alice Madden is a woman with a typical education in the over-saturated field of education. Alice is forced to work as a teacher and a governess, and even as a nurse at one point, for a very small wage. Alice must compete with many other women and has difficulty even finding a job, let alone one that will pay her enough to survive on. Alice used religion to find strength to deal with the difficulties in her life. Virginia Madden has no real education and is able to make a small living for herself by caring for an old woman but is unable to find another job when the woman passes away. Virginia is also plagued by the fact that there are too many women trying to find the same job as her. Virginia was subjected to terrible condition while working for the old woman but continued because she knew she could not find anything better. Virginia eventually took to drinking to deal with the problems in her life. Monica Madden serves to illustrate the terrible working conditions of shop clerks in Victorian England. This field was also inundated with young women trying to earn enough money to survive. Monica was forced to work extremely long hours and received very little time off. Through Monica the reader also learns that many women suffered from ailing health because of the working conditions but that the owners were not overly concerned because they knew there was more women waiting to replace the sick ones. Miss Eade is another shop clerk who is able to find another profession. In order to escape from the deplorable conditions she faced as a shop clerk, Miss Eade becomes a prostitute and lowers herself to selling her body to survive. Rhoda Nunn and Mary Barfoot represent the radical feminism that was just beginning to sweep across England. Rhoda and Mary are both trained in the clerical profession and live comfortable lives. Although their comfort comes mainly from Mary's inheritance, Gissing is making a point by associating the feminist point of view and the clerical profession with comfort. Rhoda and Mary devote most of their time to teaching young middle class women the clerical profession and how to survive as a single woman, or spinster, in Victorian England. Milly Vesper is one of Mary and Rhoda's students and she also lives a somewhat comfortable life. Milly studies hard with Mary and Rhoda and is also being prepared to take a place with Mary and Rhoda in their quest to continue to educate and liberate Victorian women.

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Approximate Word count = 1803
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)