Life in Victorian Era England- Perhaps the best way to know a people is through their laws

Victorian Marriage, Custody & Divorce Laws

1839: Infants and Child Custody Act: women were allowed to take custody of their children under the age of seven if divorced or separated. They could not take custody if they had been found to be adulterous. Before this law the father was immediately awarded custody and it did not depend on the reasons for divorce. 1857: Matrimonial Causes Act: allows divorce—but only in limited instances: Imposes matrimonial double standard: Permits men to divorce on grounds of adultery, but not women. 1857: Civil divorce was introduced in England: The process left the divorced pair either unable to remarry, or it declared their existing children as illegitimate.

1870: Married Women's Property Act: allowed for women to keep their earnings and even inherit personal property and money. Everything else still belonged to her husband if she had acquired it before her marriage. 1882: a woman could finally keep all personal and real property that she had gotten before and during her marriage. 1883: Custody Acts: allowed for women to be awarded custody of children up to the age of 16.

Victorian Era Labor Laws:

1831: Cotton Mill Act. This act applied only to cotton mills and restricted the working hours for those under 18 to 12 hours a day. Night working was forbidden for those under 21. Once again there was no enforcement system. 1833: Factory Act. No children under 9 were to be employed except in silk mills. Those aged 9 to 13 were restricted to 9 hours a day and 48 hours a week with two hours school a day. Children and young persons were not to work outside the period 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. For the first time, factory inspectors were appointed. 1842: Mines Act. This stopped children under 9 and women from working underground. 1844: Factory Act (Mills). This act applied only to the textile industry and limited the work of children aged 8 to 13 to 6.5 hours a day, which was considered to be "half-time".

1847: Factory Act. Women and young persons in textile factories were limited to 10 hours a day or 10.5 if Saturday was a half holiday. This is sometimes known as the Ten Hour Act. 1853: Factory Act. This act related to mills and required that the work of children aged 9 to 13 be between the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in summer and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in winter. Similarly the work of women and young persons was restricted to the hours between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. 1860: Bleach and Dye Works Act. This brought factories engaged in bleaching and dyeing cloth under the same rules as textile mills. It did not apply to open air bleach crofts but an act of 1862 prevented night work at such establishments. 1867: Factory Act. This brought any workplace employing more than 50 persons in manufacture under the factory acts.

1867: Workshops' Regulations Act 1867: Workshops' Regulations Act. Workplaces with less than 50 persons were prevented from employing children under 8 years old. Children aged 8 to 13 were restricted to half time working. Young persons and women were restricted to a 12 hours day with 1 and a half hours allowed for meal breaks. Children, young people and women were not to be employed after 2 p.m. on Saturdays in establishments with more than five employees and child employees were to attend school 10 hours a week. 1874: Factory Act. This forbade employment of children in mills under the age of 9. In 1875 the age limit was raised to 10. Children aged 8 could still be employed in workshops and non-textile factories. 1876: Education Act. This act made school attendance compulsory for those up to the age of 10. Once over 10 a child could leave on attaining the school leaving certificate, also known as a Labour Certificate. Forster's Education Act of 1870 had not made school attendance either compulsory or free.

1878: Factory and Workshop Act 1878: Factory and Workshop Act. This act covered all mechanically powered textile and non-textile mills. Workshops were treated as non-textile factories. Domestic workshops were treated as for non-textile factories in relation to the conditions for children and women workers. 1891: Education Act. The age limit for starting half time work was raised to 11. The system of working half time continued until 1918. 1891: Factory and Workshop Act. Mothers were not to return to work within 4 weeks of giving birth. From 1893 the limit was raised to 11 weeks.

Reform Acts- laws on voting

1832- the first reform act the act extended the right to vote to any man owning a household worth £10, adding 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000. Approximately one man in five now had the right to vote. The 1867 Reform Act extended the right to vote still further down the class ladder, adding just short of a million voters — including many workingmen — and doubling the electorate, to almost two million in England and Wales.  It, too, created major shock waves in contemporary British culture, some authors debated whether this shift of power would create democracy that would, in turn, destroy high culture.

The 1884 bill and the 1885 Redistribution Act tripled the electorate again, giving the vote to most agricultural laborers.  By this time, voting was becoming a right rather than the property of the privileged. However, women were not granted voting rights until the Act of 1918, which enfranchised all men over 21 and women over thirty. This last bit of discrimination was eliminated 10 years later (in 1928) by the Equal Franchise Act.

Laws regarding public health:

1848  Public Health Act. This was the first piece of legislation that attempted to deal with issues of public health. However, it was permissive rather than compulsory in towns other than Municipal Corporations. The Act established a central Board of Health and allowed Local Boards of Health to be set up if more than 10% of the population petitioned for one. No central inspection was required for authorities that had Boards of Health outside the legislation. Towns where the death rate exceeded 23 per 1,000 were obliged to set up a Board of Health. 1860  Food and Drugs Act. This was the first attempt at legislation to prevent the adulteration of food. It was common to find harmful additives in staple foods: white lead in flour, ground glass in sugar, red lead in coffee for example. The new law made the inclusion of additives a criminal offence.

Public Health Act: This legislation was the work of Richard A Cross Public Health Act: This legislation was the work of Richard A Cross. The Act set down in detail what local authorities had to do in terms of public health: ensure that there was an adequate water supply, drainage and sewage disposal nuisances were to be removed offensive trades were to be regulated contaminated food was to be found, confiscated and destroyed cases of infectious diseases were to be reported to the local Medical Officer of Health who then had to take appropriate action further regulations dealt with matters concerning: markets; street lighting; burials

*All information derived from The Victorian Web.