HOW IS A WOMAN TO GET HERSELF AN EDUCATION?

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a woman could not expect to receive the same education as a man. While both boys and girls started their education at home, almost all boys also attended day school – something only a few girls, of the upper classes, had the opportunity of doing. By their mid-teens, the education of boys and girls separated out further: boys would either start apprenticeships, or, if they were wealthy enough, continue their education through to secondary school and eventually university. Girls, on the other hand, stayed at home, with no possibility for higher education. Children of the lower classes would often receive no education at all, instead having to contribute to the family income from an early age.

DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATIONAL CONTENT

While boys were educated with a view to them entering the professions, for girls, education was aimed at making them fit for marriage. Her schooling should enable a girl to obtain a husband as well as to equip her for the tasks that came with marriage. Thus, upper-class women might expect to get an education in conversation, etiquette, music, some Latin and Greek, as well as some fundamentals of household management. Only a fortunate few were able to study academic subjects, and even then, this often consisted of them sharing their brothers’ lessons. Working-class women, on the other hand, were taught little more than what they required for domestic service: basic reading, writing and arithmetic, together with practical skills such as needlework or cookery.

THE OBSTACLES STANDING IN THE WAY OF WOMEN’S HIGHER EDUCATION

In spite of great efforts to achieve equality, and steady improvement as the century progressed, women’s education remained contentious. The greatest obstacles standing in the way of women were prejudice and social expectations. Women were thought unsuited to academic study. There even was a belief that too much education might have an adverse effect on women’s femininity and interfere with her fertility. The ideology of separate spheres meant that, while men engaged with the wider world, women were supposed to devote themselves to their husbands and children, look after the household and keep to the domestic sphere. Even if a woman had a career, she was expected to give it up once she got married. Thus, any money invested in a woman’s higher education would yield only a very poor return. This was particularly the case with a more expensive degree – such as medicine, where the outlay would make little economic sense if a career was to last only for a short number of years. These social and practical considerations were shored up by opposition of church leaders, who argued that the Bible opposed the education of women.

THE GOVERNESS AS A PIONEER

The census of 1851 revealed a surplus of two million women in the UK. This was the result of larger societal changes, such as men marrying later, or leaving Britain to work in colonial administration. It was clear that a large number of women were not going to marry and would need to find employment to support themselves. Most of these women ended up working as governesses. This required few qualifications, other than some basics in languages and some cultural polish. As this was seen as the only acceptable route to employment open to women, this created a crowded market, in turn depressing the salary a governess could command. It was efforts to improve the living standards of governesses that gave the impetus for women’s higher education. The year 1843 saw the establishment of the Governess Benevolent Institution, which awarded certificates to governesses who had successfully completed their studies.

CHANGE

The Governess Benevolent Institution was the forerunner of Queen’s College, founded in 1848. Even though its main purpose was preparing girls from the lower and middle classes for employment, it followed a very high standard. It employed university professors, and the school pioneered the girls’ grammar schools that sprang up in the second half of the nineteenth century. Eighteen months after Queen’s College, Elizabeth Jesser Reid established Ladies’ College in 1849 (renamed Bedford College in 1859) in Bedford Squar, Bloomsbury. It was the first higher-education college for women. Efforts to further women’s education gained traction in the 1860s with the report of the Taunton Commission, which concluded that women’s mental capacity was equal to that of men’s.

COULD ALL WOMEN ACCESS HIGHER EDUCATION?

Ladies’ College confronted many of the inequalities faced by women seeking higher education head-on. Whereas Queen’s College stipulated that students must be of the Anglican faith, Ladies’ College admitted women from most religious backgrounds. Financially, too, Ladies’ College was egalitarian: it was open to women of all classes, there was a sliding scale for tuition fees, as well as grants and bursaries.

UNIVERSITIES FOLLOW SUIT

At University College London, women gained admission to lectures from the 1860s – however, at first, they were admitted only off the actual university premises, and they were unable to sit for exams. This changed in 1878, making the University of London the first British university that allowed women students on terms of equality. Cambridge was the second university that opened its doors to women, with the establishment of Girton College in 1869 and Newnham College in 1871. Oxford followed a little later, with Lady Margaret Hall in 1878 and Somerville College in 1879.

bibliography:

Bedford College Papers, Bedford College Papers – Archives Hub (jisc.ac.uk)

Higher Education of Women 1866, Davies, Emily, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kcl/detail.action?docID=5309569

The Anglo-Jewish Contribution to the Education Movement for Women in the Nineteenth Century: Miss Stella Wills. Paper read before the Jewish Historical Society of England on 18th December, 1951,www.jstor.org/stable/29777906

“A College for Women, or Something Like It”, Bedford College and the Women’s Higher Education Movement, 1849-1900 Megan Katherine Brown Portland State University https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/209

The World of UCL, Negley Harte, John North And Georgina Brewis World-of-UCL.pdf

Women students at UCL in the early 1880s’ Charlotte Mitchell, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/…/articles/events/conference2008/mitchell.pdf