InRebecca Solomon's 1851 paintingThe Governess, the title figure (seated right, with her charge) exhibits the modest dress and deportment appropriate to her quasi-invisible role in the Victorian household.
Agoverness is a woman employed as aprivate tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or may not fulfill the limited role of anau pair,cook, and/ormaid as a secondary function. In contrast to ananny, the primary role of a governess is teaching, rather than meeting the physical needs of children; hence a governess is usually in charge of school-aged children, rather than babies.[1]
The position of governess used to be common in affluent European families before theFirst World War, especially in the countryside where no suitable school existed nearby and when parents preferred to educate their children at home rather than send them away toboarding school for months at a time, and varied across time and countries. Governesses were usually in charge of girls and younger boys. When a boy was old enough, he left his governess for a maletutor or a school.
Governesses are rarer now, except withinlarge and wealthy households or royal families such as theSaudi royal family[2] and in remote regions such asoutback Australia.[3] There has been a recent resurgence amongst wealthy families worldwide to employ governesses or full-time tutors. The reasons for this include personal security, the benefits of a tailored education, and the flexibility to travel or live in multiple locations.[4]
Traditionally, governesses taught "the three Rs" (reading, writing, and arithmetic)[5] to young children. They also taught the "accomplishments" expected ofupper-class andmiddle-class women to the young girls under their care, such as French or another language, the piano or another musical instrument, and oftenpainting (usually the more ladylike watercolours, rather than oils) or poetry. It was also possible for other (usually male) teachers with specialist knowledge and skills to be brought in, such as a drawing master or dancing master.[citation needed]
In theVictorian household, the governess was neither aservant nor a member of the host family. She worked in theupper-class home of thelanded gentry or aristocracy. She herself had a middle-class background and education, yet was paid for her services. As a sign of this social limbo, she frequently ate on her own, away from both the family and the servants. By definition, a governess was an unmarried woman who lived in someone else's home, which meant that she was subject to their rules. In any case, she had to maintain an impeccable reputation by avoiding anything which could embarrass or offend her employers. If a particular governess was young and beautiful, the lady of the house might well perceive a potential threat to her marriage and enforce the governess'ssocial exclusion more rigorously. As a result of these various restrictions, the lifestyle of the typical Victorian governess was often one of social isolation and solitude, without the opportunity to make friends. The fact that her presence in the household was underpinned by an employment contract emphasized that she could never truly be part of the host family.[citation needed]
However, being a governess was one of the few legitimate ways by which an unmarried, middle-class woman could support herself in Victorian society.[6] The majority of governesses were women whose fortunes had drastically declined (e.g.Sarah Bennett[6]), due to perhaps the death of their father or both of their parents, or the failure of the family business, and had no relatives willing to take them in. Her position was often depicted as one to be pitied, and the only way out of it was to get married. It was difficult for a governess to find a suitable husband because most of the eligible men she encountered were her social superiors, who preferred a bride from within their own social class, particularly since such women generally had better financial resources.[citation needed]
Once a governess's charges grew up, she had to seek a new position, or, exceptionally, might be retained by a grown daughter as apaid companion.[citation needed]
An option for the more adventurous was to find an appointment abroad. There is also some allusion to the phenomenon of governesses being engaged abroad inA galaxy of governesses by Bea Howe.[7]
TheRussian Empire proved to be a relatively well-paid option for many. According toHarvey Pitcher inWhen Miss Emmie was in Russia: English Governesses before, during and after the October Revolution,[8] as many as thousands of English-speaking governesses went there. The estimate of numbers ('thousands'), although necessarily vague, is justified by some knowledge of the mainlodging house used by those not accommodated with their host families,St. Andrew's House, Moscow, and by the places of worship they preferentially frequented, for examplethe church associated with the House. Pitcher drew extensively on the archives of theGovernesses' Benevolent Institution in London.[8]
Jane Gardiner (1758–1840), from her mid-teens governess to the daughters ofLady Martin, and from 1780 to the children ofLord Ilchester. She was succeeded in this second post byAgnes Porter, whose memoirs were reprinted in 1998 asA Governess in the Age ofJane Austen.[9]
Maria Sklodowska - Curie (1867–1934), who worked as a governess in multiple households to fund her education, later became one of the most influential women in the history of science.[10]
Jane Austen's novelEmma (1815) opens with the eponymous heroine losing Miss Taylor, the governess who had become a family companion, to marriage with Mr. Weston. Later, Jane Fairfax feels the threat of being forced to become a governess if her covert attachment to Frank Churchill all comes to nothing.
Mary Martha Sherwood wrote a revised version ofThe Governess, or The Little Female Academy in 1820.
Madame de la Rougierre is the wicked and mentally unbalanced French governess to heiress orphan Maud Ruthyn inJoseph Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic novelUncle Silas (1864).
Stiva, the brother of the eponymous heroine inAnna Karenina (1878), had an affair with his children's governess.
In theJeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's writingContaining Dialogues between a Governess and Several Young Ladies of Quality Her Scholars, which was published inThe Young Misses Magazine, she writes about the polite talks between Ms. Bonne and her class.[12]
Maggie Evans/Victoria Winters is hired to be governess to David Collins in the 2012 filmDark Shadows.
Miss Mary (1986) starsJulie Christie as the eponymous English governess in pre-Peron Argentina.
The Sound of Music (1965) starsJulie Andrews asMaria von Trapp. Set in Austria in 1938, a young woman studying to become a nun, is sent to become the governess to the seven Trapp children.
^"The Young Misses Magazine:".The Young Misses Magazine at books.google.com. 1800. Retrieved8 December 2020.Containing Dialogues Between a Governess and Several Young Ladies of Quality, Her Scholars. : In which Each Lady is Made to Speak According to Her Particular Genius, Temper, and Inclination: Their Several Faults are Pointed Out, and the Easy Way to Mend Them, as Well as to Think, and Speak, and Act Properly; No Less Care Being Taken to Form Their Hearts to Goodness, Than to Enlighten Their Understandings with Useful Knowledge. : A Short and Clear Abridgement is Also Given of Sacred and Profane History, and Some Lessons in Geography. : The Useful is Blended Throughout with the Agreeable, the Whole Being Interspersed with Proper Reflections and Moral Tales. Vol. I[-II]
Peterson, M. Jeanne (1972). "The Victorian Governess: Status Incongruence in Family and Society". InVicinus, Martha (ed.).Suffer and Be Still: Women In the Victorian Age. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.ISBN0-253-35572-9.
