Nineteenth century novels often portray gentlewomen living protected lives, their needs met by fathers or husbands. In Oliphant novels, as in life, many women work because they must support themselves and their families.
The occupations available to gentlewomen were few. An early novel, The Quiet Heart, suggests that a young gentlewoman facing poverty is limited to " . . . some feminine occupation among the other seamstresses, teachers, poor craftswomen . . . ." Three decades later Margaret Oliphant portrayed two successful businesswomen in Hester and Kirsteen, though these highly respected women still face an undercurrent of sneers within their own extended families, for having lowered themselves by becoming working women.
Other women work because they are looking for more meaning in their lives: "To endure hardship and labour demands a kind of heroism - to endure to be useless is the hardest fate of woman." (The Melvilles.) For example in Diana the wealthy main character chooses to manage her large estate herself.
And some women work because they are creative, such as the artist Mrs Severn in The Three Brothers. They may put these talents to work to support themselves and others, but they would do this work in any case - though probably with a smaller output. This last category includes Margaret Oliphant herself, who as a young woman at home was delighted to find an audience for her early novels, but who in the end worked to support herself and a large extended family.
