1977 Interview: 108-Year-Old Woman Reveals What Life Was Like During Victorian Times
In a fascinating interview from 1977, a 108-year-old woman named Florence Pannell spoke with British broadcaster Joan Shenton about what life was like for a woman growing up in the Victorian Era.
The Victorian Era refers to the period of Queen Victoria’s reign in the United Kingdom, from June 20, 1837, until her death on January 22, 1901.
Pannell was born in 1868, about 30 years into Queen Victoria’s reign.
She said that “everything” had changed over the years, and described how difficult it was for her, as a woman, to have her own business in Paris and London.
Pannell was a pioneer for women of her time, starting her own beauty care business and becoming well-versed in the world of fashion.
Shenton first asked Pannell to reminisce a bit on the dress code for women, asking if a woman was allowed to show her ankles.
“In Paris, nothing mattered,” Pannell said with a slight grin. But she immediately recalled a time when she was about 10 years old, looking at a cartoon drawn inside Punch Magazine, a British weekly magazine of humor and satire.
The cartoon, she recalled, pictured a group of men staring at a woman crossing the road because she had lifted up her dress just high enough to expose her ankles.
From there, the conversation turned to Pannell’s beauty business, which she said was “shockingly difficult” for her to begin.
“No lady worked in those days,” Pannell said, noting a few exceptions for acceptable roles such as those of teachers or hospital nurses.
For the most part, it seems that young Victorian girls received the same messages from their mothers: marry well, or become an old maid.
Pannell managed to run her business in Paris and London, watching the world change around her over the years.
At the age of 108, she had still never been on an airplane. When travel by air first became possible, Pannell said she was not interested, but by 1977, she admitted she would give it a go if she had the opportunity.
“I never fancied them, but I would now because I’m more venturesome,” Pannell said.
When Shenton asked Pannell to pinpoint the biggest change she had seen over time, Pannell declared that it was “everything.”
“Nothing is the same,” she exclaimed. “Everything is changed.” While the times have certainly changed, that sentiment seems to remain true of every generation.
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