Women's Education

Since I am presenting my discussion in class on Mary Astell I decided to post the process of women's education for some background information.

In 1681 Archbishop Fenelon wrote a treatise On the Education of Girls that explained how women’s education had been neglected since the Renaissance. He suggested a list of curriculum: reading, writing, arithmetic, and household economy. This treatise also assisted in the development of childhood education. By the eighteenth century more women were getting an education, but mostly those of the upper class. Louis XIV founded the school of St. Cyr that serviced the education of women. The headmistress, Mme. de Maintenon, fought not only for women’s education but also for a better education.

Mary Astell wrote a promotion for the plans of a college for women, but instead of pushing forward with the idea she wrote a revision. She worked at a girl’s school, many of which appeared in England, and more women were becoming not only literate but fiction and poetry writers as well. Reading and writing seemed to be the main focus because it was thought that a woman’s “station” in the household did not pertain to business or public affairs. Women still had no voice in the Roman Catholic and Anglican services but some were allowed to participate in Dissenting churches.