The industrial revolution and other major changes in technology and religious and political views caused significant changes in the environment and gender roles, in the nations of Britain and China during 1750-1914. The industrial revolution significantly hurt the British environment conversely china's lack of comparable industrialization left it with an environment in better shape. The Victorian age and the women's suffrage movement brought about significant changes in the gender structures of England, in china the traditional Confucius roles of men and women were questioned by the influx of western culture.

As technology advanced it often directly influenced the role of women and men in Britain, and what was expected of them. For example when the typewriter and phone became widely used single women were typecast as appropriate candidates for being employed to operate them which was a change from the Victorian value of women being homemakers and middle...