Victorian Education and the Ideal of Womanhood

According to the Victorian ideal of separate spheres for men and women, British women married young, never worked, and cared for their husbands and children. Joan Burstyn explains why the movement for higher education for women challenged the belief in separate spheres, threatening to destroy the ideal of womanhood, and how opponents of the movement diverted that threat. This book argues that higher education for women was accepted by the end of the nineteenth century because many families found the ideal unattainable, especially those with daughters who wanted work comparable to their social status. This change of sentiment in the nineteenth century enhances our understanding of the contemporary women’s movement.