The 500,000 Extra Women Victorian Britain Called Surplus

Victorian Britain called them surplus women after the 1851 census found 500,000 more women than men. This film traces what happened to the 2.5 million unmarried women counted that year, from feme sole rights and the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1882 to life in service, dressmaking and teaching. It revisits William Rathbone Gregg's "Why are Women Redundant?", the streets and rents of towns like Berkhamsted, and how classrooms and typing pools reshaped single life.