“Ordinary Teacher-Woman”: The Complicated Figure of the Mother / Teacher in Late Victorian Fiction

Abstract

While Victorian women sought new forms of professionalization in teaching, the idea of the female teacher was often paradoxically related to women’s traditional role as mother. Motherhood was seen as an essential element for the compassionate female teacher; and yet, teaching careers prevented women from becoming wives and mothers. By comparing depictions of female educators, education, and motherhood in The Odd Women and The Woman Who Did, as well as exploring historical sources on women’s education, this article shows how British women continually fought to expand their educational opportunities but were paradoxically constrained by their traditional positions as mother / teachers.