Victorian women lived with other women…

… lower class families lived together or nearby.  Grandmas were there to help little ones; women understood the needs of each other to make adjustments for periods, pregnancies, and health issues.

For those who struck out on their own and dared to live with just their husbands, cartoonists of the 1800’s assumed it was the newlyweds who worked out the lacing.  For a man to admit to this would reduce the boys “at the club” to tears of laughter and a loss of face.