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Unit 23: Harriet Martineau-On Women...

harmless trifles in which the husband has no interest, how are the powers of pleasing to be Notes
perpetuated, how is she to find interesting subjects for social converse? If we consider woman as
the guardian and instructress of infancy, her claims to cultivation of mind become doubly urgent.
It is evident that if the soul of the teacher is narrow and contracted, that of the pupil cannot be
enlarged. With respect to the second objection, viz., That the greatest advances which the female
mind can make in knowledge must fall far short of the attainments of the other sex,—I allow that
the acquirements of women can seldom equal those of men, and it is not desirable that they
should. I do not wish to excite a spirit of rivalry between the sexes; I do not desire that many
females should seek for fame as authors. I only wish that their powers should be so employed that
they should not be obliged to seek amusements beneath them, and injurious to them. I wish them
to be companions to men, instead of playthings or servants, one of which an ignorant woman
must commonly be. If they are called to be wives, a sensible mind is an essential qualification for
the domestic character; if they remain single, liberal pursuits are absolutely necessary to preserve
them from the faults so generally attributed to that state, and so justly and inevitably, while the
mind is buried in darkness.
If it be asked what kind and degree of knowledge is necessary to preserve women from the evils
mentioned as following in the train of ignorance, I answer that much must depend on natural
talent, fortune and station; but no English woman, above the lower ranks of life, ought to be
ignorant of the Evidences and Principles of her religious belief, of Sacred History, of the outline
atleast of General History, of the Elements of the Philosophy of Nature, and of the Human Mind;
and to these should be added the knowledge of such living languages, and the acquirement of
such accomplishments, as situation and circumstances may direct.
With respect to the third objection, viz., that the vanity souniversally ascribed to the sex is apt to
be inflated by any degree of proficiency in knowledge, and that women, therefore, become forgetful
of the subordinate station assigned them by law, natural and divine: the most important part of
education, the implanting of religious principles must be in part neglected, if the share of knowledge
which women may appropriate, should be suffered to inflate their vanity, or excite feelings of
pride. Christian humility should be one of the first requisites in female education, and till it is
attained every acquirement of every kind will become a cause of self-exaltation, and those
accomplishments which are the most rare, will of course be looked upon with the most self-
complacency. But if the taste for knowledge were more generally infused, and if proficiency in the
attainments I have mentioned were more common, there would be much less pedantry than there
is at present; for when acquirements of this kind are no longer remarkable, they cease to afford a
subject for pride. Let woman then be taught that her powers of mind were given her to be improved.
Let her be taught that she is to be a rational companion to those of the other sex among whom her
lot in life is cast, that her proper sphere is home—that there she is to provide, not only for the
bodily comfort of the man, but that she is to enter also into community of mind with him; . .. As
she finds nobler objects presented to her grasp, and that her rank in the scale of being is elevated,
she will engraft the vigorous qualities of the mind of man on her own blooming virtues, and
insinuate into his mind those softer graces and milder beauties, which will smooth the ruggedness
of his character:
Classical Feminist Theory
The contributions of female thinkers to classical sociological theory have generally been overlooked
throughout the years, even though they systematically developed understandings of society similar
to those of their male counterparts. However, the theories of these female thinkers are distinctive
because they incorporate the standpoint of gender, focus on the lives and work of women, critically

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