Beyond the Bonnets: Working Women in Jane Austen’s Novels

In the year that we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, a new exhibition reaches out from her novels to give a voice to working women.  

Jane Austen (1775-1817) remains one of Hampshire’s most famous working women, giving us memorable heroines such as Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse. But what of the world of work that surrounded Austen and the less often noticed women in working roles who are incidental characters in her stories? Beyond the Bonnets is a unique exhibition, specially created for the landmark 250th anniversary, which explores these lives lived in the background. Discover the true stories of working women from Austen’s Hampshire and further afield and find the parallels between fact and fiction. Follow the precarious lives of real Georgian women navigating limited opportunities and rights through their roles in domestic service, trade, education and childcare. 

Through Austen’s works, her letters, archival documents, historic objects and an absorbing, immersive soundscape, encounter the women who were footnotes in the narrative, but whose roles were fundamental to everyday Georgian life. These include Susannah Sackree (1761-1851), nursemaid to Jane’s brother, Edward, who was such a faithful and beloved member of the household that, unusually, a portrait was commissioned of her. Mrs Mary Martin of Basingstoke (1730-1823) also features - she ran an inn and organised public balls, then a draper’s shop with a lending library, before sadly declaring bankruptcy.   

Compelling, heartwarming and emotive, Beyond the Bonnets reveals the unexpected and often overlooked lives of working women at the time of Jane Austen.