Sex and sensibility in cultural history: the English governess and the lunatic asylum, 1845-1914.

This chapter is concerned with the experience of the Victorian governess and other female teachers in the lunatic asylum during the Victorian period. There is now a formidable and complex literature on the governess but little discussion of her experience behind the walls of the asylum. The chapter offers two kinds of comparison: the distinctive pattern of care of governesses in three different institutions in Victorian Devon; and secondly, the progress of those identified as 'governess' with other groups of female teachers in the same period. A number of interesting contrasts emerge. The evidence also indicates the importance of cultural and social influences in the construction of the persona of the female teacher.