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Unit 23: Harriet Martineau-On Women...

women, including a section from her 1848 book, Household Education, which was a kind of popular Notes
manual for the moral and practical instruction of a household, and a long article from Cornhill
Magazine (1864) entitled “Middle-Class Education in England: Girls.” In both of these she held that
education should be for the sake of improving the person. She insisted that girls should study the
same subjects as boys, that both should have time in school for both study and play, mental
exercise and physical exercise,but that girls should study the domestic arts as well.
Never did she question that women should become skillful at housekeeping; rather she claimed
that education would make them better at it. This is drawn from her own life, for she prided
herself on her needle work, her household management, and the sensible way in which she
entertained. She argues in several contexts that not all Englishwomen are cared for by a man and
that women need to be educated for an occupation so that they can earn their own way. These
ideas came out of Martineau’s own middle-class experience of having been left with a small legacy
poorly invested. It did not occur to her to argue for universal education. She did, however, favor
higher education for qualified women early on and enthusiastically supported the establishment
in London of Queen’s College in Hartley Street and the Ladies’ College in Bedford Square (now
Bedford College). An article on higher education, “What Women are Educated For,” forms the
third selection in this section.

23.5 On Female Education
In discussing the subject of Female Education, it is not so much my object to inquire whether the
natural powers of women be equal to those of men, as to shew the expediency of giving proper
scope and employment to the powers which they do possess. It may be as well, notwithstanding,
to inquire whether the difference be as great as is generally supposed between the mental structure
of men and of women.
Doubtless the formation of the mind must depend in a great degree on the structure of the body.
From this cause the strength of mind observable in men is supposed to arise; and the delicacy of
the female mind is thought to be in agreement with the bodily frame. But it is impossible to
ascertain how much may depend on early education; nor can we solve our doubts on this head by
turning our view to savage countries, where, if the bodily strength be nearly equal in the two
sexes, their minds are alike sunk in ignorance and darkness. In our own country, we find that as
long as the studies of children of both sexes continue the same, the progress they make is equal.
After the rudiments of knowledge have been obtained, in the cultivated ranks of society, (of which
alone I mean to speak,) the boy goes on continually increasing his stock of information, it being his
only employment to store and exercise his mind for future years; while the girl is probably confined
to low pursuits, her a spirings after knowledge are subdued, she is taught to believe that solid
information is unbecoming her sex, almost her whole time is expended on light accomplishments,
and thus before she is sensible of her powers, they are checked in their growth; chained down to
mean objects, to rise no more;and when the natural consequences of this mode of treatment
arise,all mankind agree that the abilities of women are far inferior to those of men. But in the few
instances where a contrary mode of treatment has been pursued, where fair play has been given
to the faculties, even without much assistance, what has almost invariably been the result? Has it
not been evident that the female mind, though in many respects differently constituted from that
of man, may be well brought into comparison with his? If she wants his enterprising spirit, the
deficiency is made up by perseverance in what she does undertake; for his ambition, she has a
thirst for knowledge; and for his ready perception, she has unwearied application. It is proof
sufficient to my mind, that there is no natural deficiency of power, that, unless proper objects are
supplied to women to employ their faculties, their energies are exerted improperly. Some aim they
must have, and if no good one is presented to them,they must seek for a bad one. We may find
evidence in abundance of this truth in the condition of women before the introduction of
Christianity. Before the revelation of this blessed religion, (doubly blessed to the female sex,) what

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