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<title> Why spoil a good mother to make an ordinary grammarian? Nineteenth Century Attitudes to Female Education </title>
In Britain two hundred years ago men and woman lived totally different lives and had totally different purposes in life. Education was not meant for girls and women, they had other duties. These duties were more important than anything and contained occupations like: bringing up children, transfer good moral to their children, be loving wives and take care of their husbands when they came home at night and were exhausted by hard work. Girls were taught their social skills by their mothers or employed governesses who instructed them how to sing, behave and most important; how to succeed on the marriage-market. Equality between the sexes did not exist and what upper- and middle-class girls could hope for was to be beautiful enough to get married. However, fortunately the situation is better today and history shows what a hard struggle it has been for girls and women to take part in education. 
	 There were many arguments against a formal education for females at this time. There were mainly the men who had opinions about this and no one really asked the women what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of them even thought it was God who had decided that housekeeping was their only option in life. "I know that woman is naturally and necessarily weak in comparison with man; and that her lot has been appointed thus by Him who alone knows what is best for us..." (Ellis The mothers of England p.328).
	 Some argued that since boys and girls were different both mentally and physically they should be treated different and not practise the same skills. When the boys were in school and learnt mathematics the girls should be at home and look after their little brothers and sisters and get prepared for future life as mothers. There were also concerns about whether women's health would manage to bear the responsibility for both family and education. People were worried that women would lose their ability to produce children if they spent too much time on intellectual training. Another aspect which was a part of the debate about women education was how it would affect their role as beautiful, loving and sensitive women. They who had the opportunity and will to develop their intellectual skills were sometimes ashamed to show their interest. It was said that men apprehended these women unattractive and abnormal and thought that higher education could destroy the ideal of womanhood. Women lived their lives to serve the family but in the 1870s when women finally could enter colleges they did it for their own good and became more independent.
	 During this debate in the nineteenth century the capacity of the brain and what made men and women so different in the way they thought was discussed. It might sound revolting today but many thought that women were not as intelligent as men and that their brains had not the same abilities to develop knowledge as men's. "Women should not be encouraged to believe that higher education could ever be of value to them, for their brains were less developed than men's" (Burstyn Woman's Intellectual Capacity p.70) Anatomists tried to prove that they were right by biological and medical arguments. During the 1860s an anatomical study of the human brain was published and among other things the cranial measurement was analysed. After reading this study some draw the conclusions that size and weight of a brain was proportional to intelligence. This statement was further confirmed by comparing a doctor's brain to an idiot's - the doctor's was almost three times heavier. The male brain was almost always both heavier and bigger than the female's and according to this theory; women were born less intelligent than men! 
	 Emily Davies was one of the feminists who struggled for equality in education and she begun to establish a women's college at Hitchin in 1869. This was the first movement which paved the way for higher education for women and it proved that women was capable to attend the same courses as men and at the same time keep their good health. It also showed that the size of the brain was not relevant and determined concerning the ability to acquire knowledge. Ten years later there were a few more women's colleges opened and now the aim was to join the universities. There were still many prejudices against women's colleges and education, some thought they would never be able to be compared to the original universities in standard and quality. Finally, higher education was accessible for women who now could enter the job-market and earn their own living and still get a decent life if they did not get married and supported by a husband.
	 So, what happened to the mothers after this educational reform? Did they stop to give birth to children, did their bodies get destroyed, did they act in a abnormal way or did they start to compete with men? No, not really. What did happened was that they got more to live for, they got a chance to develop as individuals and try to reach self-realization. The mothers were not spoiled at all, they just got more abilities to apply in life and felt more efficient. Today, there are many women who are working in Britain but, on the other hand there are also many housewives who are supported by their husbands' income. In the Scandinavian countries, Sweden for example, it is very uncommon with housewives nowadays and one reason for that is that Sweden has a much more effectively and developed system for child-care and the mothers do not have to stay at home with their children which is more common in Britain. Even though the situation for women and their right to get educated has been improved there is still much to do about equality between men and women. This debate is not over yet, today for example many are struggling for that women should get the same salary as men when they are doing the same business. It sounds so obviously but still are women not as accepted on the job-market as men but hopefully it will change and make the world more equal.
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