The Victorian Empire experienced lots of major changes that affected living standards profoundly in different stages of Victorian period. Victorian society bore witness to major penetrating changes at an unprecedented pace, which affected the social, economic, political and educational structure profoundly. It was inevitable that economic progress and industrialization led to population growth in urban life, with the urbanization of rural areas, the intensification of the growth of towns, the coming of the railways, better sanitation, higher living standards, while at the same time the Industrial Revolution created a gap between employers and workers during this mechanization process. These groundbreaking changes naturally transgressed the stereotypical gender roles, by making middle-class women pursue more social rights and independence in both education and work sphere and by attacking the patriarchal structure of the society that condemns women to domestic imprisonment. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate the changes in the quality of life in Victorian Empire, mainly depending upon social, industrial, economic, gender and demographic issues and question whether these changes produced better or worse living conditions during the years between 1837 and 1901.

Victorian society, industrial, reforms, new woman, population growth