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Continuing Education

Continuing Education

Women were often not educated after 12 years, as it was thought to irreparably damage their luck in love and spark an insatiable (and highly unfeminine) curiosity. Therefore, women who pursued higher education did so in solitude and without institutional support. Although the public decried female ignorance, they were unwilling to subscribe to any radical change to the existing educational system. Highly and traditionally educated women challenged existing gender roles by forcing men to accept the fact that women’s intelligence could extend beyond domestic abilities and feminine graces. Mary Leapor succinctly summarizes the sad vision of a strongly educated woman:

The damsels view her with malignant eyes,
The men are vexed to find a nymph so wise:
And wisdom only serves to make her know
The keen sensation of superior woe.

The Bluestocking women who did receive regulated and classical education were divided in how to implement changes to the existing system. Some, like Hannah More, suggested that women work within the existing social confines by being successful in learned domestics. Others, like Catherine Graham, wanted a complete eradication of the system that divided the subjects taught to girls and boys. In Letters on Education (1790), Graham suggested that educational programs be integrated to include both boys and girls, with a distinct refusal to treat female education as a distinct and separate topic. Despite the discrepancy, one thing was certain: both women knew that the traditional system of education left a lot to be desired, and it was important to address and make changes that would rectify these problems.