This sounds HIGHLY unlikely. What period is the house? Feminine ankle-revealing was perfectly acceptable at many points in time from the late-eighteenth-century on, although not throughout the entire 19th century. From what you describe, I'm envisioning one of those gorgeous double hemi-spherical sweeping staircases, which had everything to do with architectural style and elegance, and nothing, to the best of my knowledge, to do with gender.
Hillary Murtha
University of Delaware
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