The "delicate" lady’s place in fashion probably lead in many ways to the Victorian woman’s high death rate. As a healthy appetite, labor, exercise, and spending a lot of time outdoors was considered manly, women didn’t eat a lot, hardly ever got good exercise, and spent a lot of time indoors, where the air was stagnant and germs ran amok. The working men got the best food and meat, and the women in the family looked after the sick, who coughed in their faces all day. Many of the middle and upper class women suffered from "Green Sickness", which describes the skin of an anemic person. This was due to the lack of iron in people's foods.

Source: http://robertwhite.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/random-facts-about-the-victorian-era/