Higher daughter
In the 19th century, young girls and women from upper -class circles and from the largely “bourgeois” nobility were referred to as higher daughters . In contrast to the daughters of lower social classes (such as the petty bourgeois to bourgeois artisan and merchant milieu or the rural rural population ), “higher daughters” were exempt from any gainful activity (such as working in a family business or serving as a servant ). Her job was to become a good housewife , wife and mother . Upbringing and schooling (see women's education ) of the senior daughter were correspondingly one-dimensional .
The biography of a senior daughter was ideally as follows: Around the age of confirmation or confirmation , the school days (at a secondary school for girls or girls' boarding school ) came to an end and the young woman was sent to the marriage market . That meant constant participation in various small parties , evening parties and balls , which had the purpose of bringing the daughter under the hood. The desired marriage at that time was a mixture of love and arranged marriage .
Often, however, this path did not go that way. The women concerned found a more or less good livelihood as a teacher, educator or companion . Overall, their freedom was limited due to the prevailing ideal of femininity.
literature
- Wiltrud Ulrike Drechsel (ed.): Higher daughters. On the socialization of middle-class girls in the 19th century (contributions to the social history of Bremen; vol. 21). Edition Temmen, Bremen 2001, ISBN 978-3-86108-640-6 .
- Bärbel Ehrmann-Köpcke: “Demonstrative idleness” or “restless activity”? Handicraft women in the Hanseatic bourgeoisie . Dissertation, University of Bremen 2009; Introductory chapter (PDF; 269 kB)
- Dagmar-Renate Eicke: "Teenager" in the emperor's time. The “higher” daughter in society, decency and girls' books between 1860 and 1900 (Marburg studies on comparative ethnosociology; vol. 11). Marburg Study Group for European Ethnology, Marburg 1980 (dissertation, University of Marburg 1980).
- Michaelea Jonach: Fatherly Advice for Bourgeois Daughters. Upbringing of girls and the ideology of femininity with Joachim Heinrich Campe and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Aspects of Educational Innovation; Volume 22). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-631-32373-5 .
- Ursi Blosser and Franziska Gerster: Daughters of good society: the role of women and the education of girls in the Swiss upper middle class around 1900 , Chronos, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-905278-04-9 (joint dissertation University of Zurich 1985, 342 pages).
- Michaela Jonach: Father's advice for middle-class daughters: raising girls and the ideology of femininity with Joachim Heinrich Campe and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (= aspects of educational innovation ; Volume 22). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-631-32373-5 (diploma thesis University of Klagenfurt [1997], 224 pages).