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<title> "Why spoil a good mother to make an ordinary grammarian?" (T.S. Cluston, 1882): Nineteenth Century Attitudes to Female Education. </title>
Education of women was a widely discussed issue in the nineteenth century England. Many people were opposed to the idea of female education, while others thought it was a step in the right direction. At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century the discussion about the education that girls got grew vociferous. Especially the large middle class wanted to see a change in the disorganised system of education for girls. In this essay I intend to present some of the arguments that spoke for and against formal education for girls and women at that time. Arguments from medical, ethical as well as social viewpoint will be presented.

One of the strongest arguments used against woman's education was that she was physically weaker than the man and that she therefor would not be able to cope with the heavy burden of education. It was also said that if she studied too much she was not able to give birth to children. Another argument concerning the physique was that the female brain was smaller than the male brain. Anthropologists argued that the size of the brain was relative to its intelligence, so women would never actually be able to compete with men when it came to intelligence. Hence the argument that it was a waste of resources to educate the women. Anatomical arguments, like this one, changed as time went by. Influenced by different anthropologists and Charles Darwin, the scientists in the nineteenth century took in many of these men's opinions, but the perspective and argumentation changed from one decade to another depending on in what area research was done. 

Many people thought that innate differences between woman and man made woman unsuitable for higher education. The male intellect was said to be inductive, in contrast to the female one, which was deductive. This meant that women were seen as not being able to come up with any new ways of thinking, since they could only draw conclusions from what was already established rules. Men's type of intellect was "capable of long, earnest thought" (p 71, J. N. Burstyn, Victorian Education and the Ideal of Womanhood, 1980), while women were said not to possess the power of thinking with depth. In other words, the two intellects were made for different purposes and it would be unnatural to try to assimilate them, since that was not the way it was intended by God. In contrast to scientific arguments, religious ones like this one remained quite similar from one period to the other. 

Supporters of female education claimed that the differences between the sexes were not innate, but could be blamed on the non-existing intellectual training for women. The narrowness of their lives had alienated them from the intellectual thinking of men. This could be remedied only if women got the same opportunity to education as men did. But even though many people accepted and understood the women's need for higher education they were still opposed to the idea of men and women being educated in the same place, at the same university. They did not want women to graduate from the ancient universities (for instance Oxford and Cambridge) and have a say in the way these universities should be governed. Because by letting women in to these universities the men would be more or less forced to give some of the authority to the women. What they believed in was two separate spheres for male and female education. They feared that a development towards one sphere for the two sexes would be the beginning of a revolution in relation between men and women.

However, some people did not agree at all with critics of female education. Beginning in the 1830s, voices were heard demanding higher standards of governesses teaching young boys and girls. Families who employed governesses were of the opinion now, that these women should be better educated. The number of families employing governesses increased and many of the employers thought that women who were not suitable for that kind of work were employed in the absence of better educated governesses. This led to the opening of women's colleges in the 1840s. Nevertheless, the intention was still to promote the education of boys since they were expected to have greater competence when entering school. For those women who never married it was difficult to earn a living without any kind of higher education. It was argued in favour of these women that more colleges should be opened to women, and furthermore, that their education should be combined with physical activity. 

Mrs Sarah Ellis says in The Mothers of England (p 328-29, 1843) that even though woman is weaker than man, "she should not be rendered weaker than necessary by" her education. What would be preferable was an education that was adjusted to what the future wife and mother needs to know, i.e. the main emphasis should not be on music, painting and conversation. Her education should prepare her for her future life - something it did not do at that time. When having finished her education she should be acquainted with subjects such as those needed if the woman had to nurse a sick person. This would make the woman fill "the place and discharging the duties of a woman". (Ellis, p 331)

We can see that opposition against female education was strong in England during the nineteenth century. The weakness of the female body was a big reason for this - she would never cope with education. Furthermore, the structure of her brain made her incapable of taking in, organise and produce any kind of deeper thoughts or new ways of thinking. These arguments lead to the conclusion that it was a waste of resources to provide higher education for women since society would not gain on it. Supporters claimed the opposite. They saw the then life of the women as the reason to their inferiority and if they would be given the chance to study it would contribute to the progress of society.
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