Part 4/13:
The speaker delves into late 19th-century responses to the question, Why are you a spinster? from women in Britain in 1889. The responses she quotes read like modern-day TikTok confessions—witty, sharp, and at times defiant, revealing women’s awareness of societal constraints and their own choices.
Back then, women responded with comments ranging from humorous critiques of American men monopolizing the marriage market to assertions of independence and professional opportunity, suggesting women always possessed agency—even within a society eager to shame them.