Emotional Labour, Elite Women, and the Eighteenth-Century Country House
Sat, 11 Jan
|York
This talk discusses the emotional labour experienced by elite women in their role as mistress of the eighteenth-century country house, and examines how their pursuit of domestic perfection often incurred painful and damaging consequences.
Time & Location
11 Jan 2025, 14:30 – 16:00
York, 23 Stonegate, York YO1 8AW, UK
Guests
About the Event
Dr Ruby Rutter
Emotional Labour, Elite Women, and the Eighteenth-Century Country House
Summary:
In the 1760s, Sabine Winn (1734-1798) wrote to her husband, explaining that it was ‘not in my power to get used to this life’, when describing her difficulty adjusting to the duties and expectations placed upon her as mistress of Nostell Priory, near Wakefield. Sabine was Swiss-French, spoke little English, and had next to no experience of running a household. The pressure she felt to embody ideal elite femininity and domesticity dramatically affected her wellbeing and mental health. This talk discusses the emotional labour experienced by elite women in their role as mistress of the eighteenth-century country house, and examines how their pursuit of domestic perfection often incurred painful and damaging consequences.
Biography:
Ruby Rutter is an historian of emotion, lived experience, domestic spaces, and gender, with a specific interest in reconstructing how people in the past…