Unstable Adolescence: Medicine and the ‘Perils of Puberty’ in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Abstract

The late Victorian and Edwardian eras were in many ways times of great opportunity for young women, marked by increased access to secondary, college and university education and paid employment in factories, workshops, offices and professions such as teaching and medicine. New, less restrictive modes of dress and models of body image made headway, associated with the opening up a variety of exercise regimes, sports and recreations to adolescent girls. These opportunities paralleled and, to a certain extent, drove forward a process whereby established ideas of female weakness based on biological vulnerability were challenged and substituted by the ideal of the strong, fit and active modern girl.¹ This was a process that varied greatly across the social classes and, though working-class girls had far fewer opportunities in terms of employment or recreational outlets, as subsequent chapters will demonstrate, it potentially involved all girls regardless of status or location. None of these developments, however, went undisputed on medical, social or moral grounds, or all three combined. The emergence of the vibrant and ambitious modern girl triggered negative responses by social commentators eager to preserve the status quo in terms of the ideals of girlhood embodying the characteristics of femininity, docility and homeliness.