Female Education

by Claire Zernich

Education in Regency England

During the Regency Era in England, women were oppressed to a life of inequality to men. At this time in history, women were expected to be physically attractive and marry into a higher socioeconomic class so that she may provide for her family and the community. As a married woman she was expected to produce offspring and help them receive the best education and skills needed to take care of the property when her and her husband pass on the fortune. To achieve this goal of marrying wealthy and into the upper class a woman needed to be subservient to men.

 

Drawing of a young woman and her “master” teacher as she learns to play the piano.

Women in the upper class were given few options of educational growth. Many girls that grew up in the aristocracy might have been given an education by a tutor or governess at home, sent to a private boarding school, or sent to live with a tutor (Perkins). Along with the basic education of foreign languages such as French and writing, the girls might have received lessons by an outside master. An outside master taught lessons regarding the skills such as a playing the piano. However, girls were not allowed to attend the “Grammar” schools offered to the advantage of men to teach basics such as Greek and Latin (Perkins).

Women were also not allowed to attend the public schools in England such as the universities because they taught classical studies of Greek and Latin. The classical languages were, “The prime symbol of academic knowledge, and more-or-less exclusively masculine educational attainments” (Perkins). The classic studies were a privilege and symbolized power and intelligence. Girls were not deemed worthy of receiving such a mind stimulating privilege. As a result, a greater amount of time was spent on the upper-class boy’s education over the education of the girls of the same status.

 

The Goals of a Woman’s Education 

The main goal of a woman’s education was to prepare herself for marriage and a life of subservience to her husband. “Women were taught domestic skills such as sewing and needlework to be accomplished during her spare time” (Perkins).  The goal of the upper-class woman was to acquire accomplishments in the arts such as drawing, piano, singing, and speaking modern languages of French and Italian, along with the domestic skills. Gaining such accomplishments gave a woman greater chances of marriage into the wealthy upper class, only to then neglect those practices once married.

1818 engraving of the marriage of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold.

In Regency England, the main goal of a woman was to attract a man of wealth and high social status. As a result, a woman that was not blessed with physical beauty or attraction relied on education and intelligence to entice a well-to-do gentleman. An educated woman with money was highly regarded as a suitable wife for a man of high social status. Lady Mary Montagu “makes a compelling analogy between a young woman’s intelligence and her body” (Farr 1). Lady Mary gives the example of a young woman who was physically disabled and left with a scarred face due to the neglect of her Uncle when she was ill. As a result of the young woman’s deformities her chances of marriage in a high social class were very slim, until her Uncle left his money to be inherited to her and blessed her with the gift of an education. When the young girl received an education and gained intelligence, her chances to marry well increased. (Farr

Reformers of Female Education

During Regency England there were many reformers that fought for women equality. Mary Wollstonecraft played a key role in the feminist movement during the nineteenth century in England. Mary Wollstonecraft fought for the equality of women arguing, “that women had a greater capacity for sensibility, compassion and virtue and thus might be morally superior to men” (Mellor 149). Wollstonecraft had a strong belief that women were equal to men and possessed the same mental capacities and deserved the same human rights. As a result Wollstonecraft built her campaign for equality through the reform of female education arguing “girls should be educated in the same subjects and by the same methods as boys” (Mellor 149).

Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie.me human rights. As a result Wollstonecraft built her campaign for equality through the reform of female education arguing “girls should be educated in the same subjects and by the same methods as boys” (Mellor).

Another activist Hannah More combined these two issues to create a program to educate upper and middle-class women for a live of charity work instead of a profession. Unlike Wollstonecraft, More was considered a more conservative activist basing most of her reform ideas off of the Bible.

Jane Austen and Female Education 

Jane Austen was greatly influenced by the women activists in the Regency England and supported the arguments for the education of women. As a result, Jane Austen incorporated female characters that learn basic skills such as reading or life skills from making mistakes to grow as responsible wives and judges of nature.

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen created the character Caroline Bingley to represent the gentry that received an education by attending a private boarding school for girls.  Jane Bennet represented society’s views of the way a woman should act. Jane is a beautiful, soft-spoken girl with minimal education, but was able to marry into high social class due to her social status of being a gentleman’s daughter. Elizabeth Bennet was not as physically attractive as Jane, but was intelligent and wise through the resources provided to her by her father’s library. Elizabeth’s intelligence along with her social status was the reason Darcy was attracted to her. Elizabeth was seen as a valuable girl to marry because of her intelligence and wit.

Also, in Mansfield Park, the education of women was a major theme throughout the novel. When Sir Thomas took in Fanny to be raised with Lady Bertram and their children, there was an obvious distinction between Sir Thomas’s daughters and Fanny. Maria and Julia Bertram were only a couple years older than Fanny, but “as education had given to their address; no one would have supposed the girls so nearly of an age as they were” (Austen). As a part of the gentry Maria and Julia had been taught French and the piano creating a division between the Miss Bertrams and their cousin Fanny. A governess, Miss Lee, in their home of Mansfield Park, taught Sir Thomas’s daughters. Fanny was not given the opportunity to be taught by Miss Lee who “wondered at her ignorance” (Austen). Throughout the novel it was shown that the Miss Bertrams were to be educated and reminded of their social status above Fanny. This division between the girls represents the privileges given to girls in the upper-class than those in the lower-class. Fanny was born into a family marked with poverty, but was adopted into her Aunt and Uncle’s home. However, Fanny was not seen as an equal to the Bertrams due to her socioeconomic status given to her at birth, so she was not given the same education as the young Miss Bertrams. However, Edmund Bertram, the second son, taught Fanny himself because he represents the reformers in society that fought for equal education rights among women and men.

Works Consulted

Bolen, Cheryl. “The Education of Young Men and Women in the Regency.” TheBeau Monde Romance Writers of America Chapter Website. N.p., 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2016. http://thebeaumonde.com/the-education-of-young-men-and-women-in-the-regency-by-cheryl-bolen/ 

Farr, Jason S. “Sharp Minds / Twisted Bodies: Intellect, Disability, and Female Education in Frances Burney’s Camilla.” The Eighteenth Century 55.1 (2014): 1-17. Web.

Mellor, Anne K. “Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the Women Writers of Her Day.” The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft (n.d.): 141-59. Print.

Perkins, Kristin (appearing as Caroline Bingley in BYU’s Pride and Prejudice).”Education of Upper-Class Women in Regency Era.” BYU Presents PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2016. https://byuprideandprejudice.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/education-of-upper-class-women-in-regency-era/

Ruderman, Anne Crippen. The Pleasures of Virtue: Political Thought in the Novels of Jane Austen. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995. Print.

 

Images

Dietze, Susanne. “Regency Weddings.” Historical Charm/Timeless Heart. Web. 26 Oct. 2016. http://www.susannedietze.com/regency-weddings.html

Opie, John. Mary Wollstonecraft. 1797. Primary Collection, National Portrait Gallery, London. National Portrait Gallery. Web. 26 Oct. 2016. http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01807/mary-wollstonecraft