Madison Meeks – Editor-in-Chief

Mvm7037@psu.edu

In honor of women’s history month, I thought I would talk about a part of history that took place in the 18th and 19th century, also called the Regency era, was the marriage market. In the olden olden days, there was a time where women were only seen as objects whose intent was to be married and have children. They were not allowed to work other than being a housewife. 

Well in the 1800s higher society Great Britain is when the marriage market was really popular. It was when women from the ages of 18 to late 20s were sent out into society so men could stare at them and choose if they were worthy enough to marry. Like why was this even a thing? Women should have been allowed to choose who they wanted to marry. Most of the marriages were not even built on love, so the couple would be miserable. By the 19th century though women would get more hopeful that they would marry for love. 

A lot of aspects took into account if the daughter would marry well. First, finances were considered. If the family was rich then the women would be able to marry well because the man would want to marry her for the money. I think about this and the women definitely deserved better. Finances should not be considered whether a man would marry a woman. If I was born in this time period, then I would have gone rogue and married for love. 

During the marriage market, if the man thought that the woman was worthy enough to marry then he would take to impressing the women into marrying them by courting them, which is a more proper way of dating. When they would court them, they would give them gifts like the finest jewelry and flowers. I mean free gifts were probably the only good thing during the marriage season. While the couple were getting to know each other, the families would have private teas and dinners together, honestly does not sound that bad. The couples would go to balls where they would dance. Most of the time the couples would meet at the balls during the season, then they would decide to court each other. 

During the time of the Regency period, all dates for the couples would need to be chaperoned. What even was this time period? These couples were in their 20s not 7, they really did not need a chaperone. Ridiculous is what this is. During the courting period, no Christian names were allowed to be used. The couple could only use madam, sir, and my lord. They were even allowed to use Mr. and Miss. but I mean I get that it was more proper during the time period for the people not to call each other by their names but it was ridiculous these people were getting married. 

But anyways, the marriage market was wrong in all aspects of life. Women should have been allowed to marry for love. Couples definitely did not need chaperones. I am so glad that society has changed.