How were women limited in Pride and Prejudice?

I think a good way of answering this is quoting the famous
first sentence of this great novel, that satirically summarises the position of women in
the time of the novel and also points towards the way in which they had very few
options:

It is
a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must
be in want of a wife.

The
fact is that for women in the novel, the only real option they have to leave home and to
become slightly more independent is to marry. There was no possibility in that time of
leaving home by yourself and working. Marriage was how you secured your future. If you
think about it, this is one of the reasons why Charlotte Lucas marries such a man as Mr.
Collins. The alternative would be to end up as an old spinster who is forced to remain
as a companion for her mother and is dependent upon the rest of the family to support
her.

You also might like to think about the way in which
Lydia is presented after she runs away. What is interesting is that, as the Bennet girls
are told many, many times by a number of different people, whilst a man like Wickham can
engage in sexual relations outside of wedlock many times, for a woman like Lydia to do
something like that has a massive impact not just on her own reputation, but the
reputation of her family and the way that they are viewed. The other family members
would be "tainted by association."

Lastly, I feel a word
needs to be said for poor Mrs. Bennet. As ridiculous as she is, she is also quite a
pitiable character, as her desperate desire to marry her daughters off comes from a
desire to provide both for herself and for her daughters when Mr. Bennet dies. Although
this desire is presented in an incredibly humorous way, let us remember that there was a
need to provide for the family due to the law of entailment, which meant that no
property could be inherited by a woman.