Expert: Benjamin Davidson - 9/18/2010

Question
hi my name is Sarah,
i have been sat some homework to find out about the 1900s.
can you help me
i need to know what a rich family would be like. and what a sixteen year old year of the age of sixteen would have to do.
what the school would be like.
what male and female do.
and a day to day life would be like for a sixteen year old rich girl
can U help me??
thanks

Answer
Hello Sarah

The life of a 16 year old girl from a rich family would be a very good one. She would be well dressed, smart, and would be learning about the skills of becoming a lady. Girls at that age would be taught at a girls school or by private tutors. They would be taught basic education, but mainly it was about speaking properly and learning the life skills of being a woman and a wife.

As a girl you wouldn't be socialising with boys at all, that aim of the family was to generally bring you up well and hopefully marry you off to a young man from another rich family. Boys would either be doing blue collar jobs, but from a rich family boys and men would often follow into the fathers businesses. So that you could be kept in a lifestyle to which you had become accustomed. It would also mean the family father would get more connections and go up in standing if he had relatives from another rich family.

I hope this helps a bit. Below are two web addresses that might help. Kind regards
Ben

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/C/countryhouse/theproject/index.html

http://www.fashion-era.com/the_mood_of_edwardian_society.htm