Gabrielle Mearns, an expert in female philanthropy and Victorian literature, explains the importance of philanthropy and social reform in the nineteenth Century.

With the support of wealthy activist, Angela Burdett-Coutts, Dickens set up a house for women who had recently been released from prison. This helped them develop domestic and life skills but also had undesirable consequences such as pressuring them to emigrate.

Dickens portrayal of women in novels Bleak House and Little Dorrit provide further insight into his views on women. His exaggerated female characters in Bleak House suggest that he disagreed with female activists.

Philanthropy provided women with a new legitimate way of getting outside their houses and experiencing new events outside of their ordinary domestic routines.

Gabrielle Mearns