New Opportunities And Freedoms
The lot of all women has altered radically since Jane Austen's day and is likely to alter still more in the twenty-first century. Contraception gives them the opportunity to have sex without the fear of bearing an illegitimate child. The concept of illegitimacy itself has gone out of the window and in Britain, abortion can be had almost on demand.
Mothers need no longer fear starvation, social stigma or the workhouse for themselves or their 'bastard' children. They can have sex without marriage and even children without sex and do not have to look to the father, known or unknown, for financial support. The state will do that job if either is unemployed.
Social welfare, assisted housing or tax concessions may be miserly compared with the finances of better off parents, but such benefits ensure, at least, that no child with or without two parents need die from starvation in the Western world today.
Women do not have to be governesses or nannies, but if they choose these jobs, they are likely to earn a good salary and be respected by the wealthy families who can afford them. Neither do they have to resign jobs on marriage, as they did for example in the UK civil service and teaching, until World War Two. Some part, at least, of the world is now their oyster. Under-represented in politics, banking, the international scene, top posts in industry, academia and the civil service, women nevertheless have new career opportunities opening up to them in a way never possible even only a couple of decades ago. In theory at least it seems a woman can have everything if she has the 'right' personality - with a modicum of good looks, and the right relationship help to keep things going at home. If both are not quite perfect, high qualifications might suffice. This means a longer period of study to get those qualifications. To rise higher in their chosen career, women post-pone marriage and children until the time seems more propitious. That tends to be in their middle thirties. They then look round and find that many of the once 'eligible' men are already married or do not want a 'commitment'.