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<title> "Why spoil a good mother to make an ordinary grammarian?" (T.S Clouston, 1882): Nineteenth Century Attitudes to Female Education. </title>
In developed countries of today we take it for granted that women should have the same possibilities as men to go through a good education, at least in theory. That has not always been the case, though. Before the nineteenth century it was practically impossible for a girl to go to a proper school and there was a wild debate all through the century, concerning whether or not female education was necessary and important. In this essay I will briefly describe the development of female education in Great Britain during the nineteenth century and also outline some of the arguments that were used for and against it. 
	Girls' education was not very organised during the first part of the 1800s. The only two possibilities were in fact to hire a governess that taught at home and to send girls to small private schools. Both of these solutions were of course expensive and could not be used by every one. Furthermore the purpose of school was to teach girls how to behave correctly in social life, for example how to succeed on the marriage market and to be a perfect hostess, and the intellectual skills were not considered important. The people who advocated a change in girls' education claimed that women had to be educated like men in order to be able to contribute to society and to earn their own living if they did not marry. 
	When this kind of criticism of girls' education arose in different groups in society, for example in the established middle class and among feminists, things began to change. New secondary schools for girls began to be founded in the 1840s and another important thing was to improve the governesses' skills in different subjects and in teaching. Queen's College that was opened in London in 1848 offered academic studies for governesses and also provided them with certificates of their knowledge and soon afterwards a college for women was founded with the purpose of offering further education for every woman that desired it. Consequently the preparation of girls for academic studies had to be improved as well. This led to public schools for girls, which the parents had to pay for, but day schools also occured.
At this time there were naturally people who opposed the change of girls' education. Some claimed that young women did not get the proper preparation for life in the new kind of school. Mrs Sarah Ellis writes in "The Women of England" (1838): "I know not how education deserves the name, if it does not prepare the individual whom it influences, for filling her appointed station in the best possible manner" (p. 70). She thinks that the main purpose for girls' schooling should be to make them generous, peaceful and considerate persons because that is what is demanded by society. "The quality for which...they are esteemed and valued is their disinterested kindness" (p.71). According to her it is more important for a working class girl to be able to care for the sick than to know how to speak foreign languages. 
	Furthermore Mrs Sarah Ellis emphasises the bad things about sending girls to school. Among other things she mentions that a girl is more likely to receive negative influences from the surroundings than a boy is. Therefore she had better stay at home protected from the outer world and in the care of sensible parents. The mother is the most suitable person to introduce a girl to the world of female duties, like "the beauty of household accomplishments" (Ellis, p. 333). Not only did schools have a negative effect on girls' behaviour but it also worsened their physical health since they did not get enough bodily exercise. "The number of languid, listless and inert young ladies who now recline upon our sofas...is to me a truly melancholy spectacle" (Ellis, p.80).
	In addition to these statements other arguments were common, especially medical ones. The women were considered to be less developed intellectually than men. Because of their lack of depth it was particularly difficult for them to concentrate and weigh evidence and it was almost impossible for a woman to reach conclusions by analysing. "Men were capable of long, earnest thought; women were not" (Burstyn, p.71). Women were also "undoubtedly inferior to men in their stamina for study and their power of reasoning" (Burstyn, p.71). Besides, they were not able to separate their emotions from their reasoning and judgement. However, women had, in spite of all these "facts", some advantages. Their intuition was considered superior to men's, they were good at picking out details and they "applied themselves with grace to whatever they did" (Burstyn, p.71). Nevertheless, the main idea was that men and women differed as much intellectually as they did physically and that there was no point in trying to change that fact by trying to make girls into boys, for example by providing them a similar education. 
	Much effort was put into trying to find proofs of women's intellectual inferiority for example by studying brains. The theory of evolution was used to explain the differences between men's and women's brains and the differences seemed to be greater the more civilised the country was. Since men and women had evolved in different ways it was natural that they should not be equal. It was claimed that men had been forced to develop intellectually in order to protect the women. In addition to this, cranial measurements became popular as a way of measuring intelligence in the middle of the 1800s. Consequently it was claimed that "intelligence was directly proportional to the size and weight of the brain" (Burstyn, p.78). Since women's brains were both smaller and lighter it was assumed that they were innately less intelligent than men. Furthermore it was believed that mental strain caused gynaecological injuries and therefore could endanger women's fertility. 	
In conclusion: During the 1800s there was an animated discussion about women's education. A lot of different arguments were used, medical as well as ethical and social, and many of them may seem incomprehensible and even ridiculous to us. But we have to remember that great progress was made during this time, both in education and in other fields, and big changes have always caused uncertainty among people who want to stick to an old set of values. Anyhow, girls did get access to a good education and we ought to be happy that the ones opposing it did not have their way.
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