Access to the full content is only available to members of institutions that have purchased access. If you belong to such an institution, please log in or find out more about how to order.


Cover of The Schooling of Girls in Britain and Ireland, 1800–1900

The Schooling of Girls in Britain and Ireland, 1800–1900

  • Published: 7 Mar 2013
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780203645765
  • Print ISBN: 9780415181969
  • eBook ISBN: 9780203645765

This book compares the formal education of the majority of girls in Britain and Ireland in the nineteenth century. Previous books about ‘Britain’ invariably focus on England, and such ‘British’ studies tend not to include Ireland despite its incorporation into the Union in 1801. The Schooling of Girls in Britain and Ireland, 1800-1900 presents a comparative synthesis of the schooling of working and middle-class girls in the Victorian period, with the emphasis on the interaction of gender, social class, religion and nationality across the UK. It reveals similarities as well as differences between both the social classes and the constituent parts of the Union, including strikingly similar concerns about whether working-class girls could fulfill their domestic responsibilities. What they had in common with middle-class girls was that they were to be educated for the good of others. This study shows how middle-class women used educational reform to carve a public role for themselves on the basis of a domesticated life for their lower class ‘sisters’, confirming that Victorian feminism was both empowering and constraining by reinforcing conventional gender stereotypes.

Contents

  • content locked
    Front Matter
  • content locked
    1
    Introduction
  • content locked
    2
    Gender and Social Control in the Education of Working-Class Girls
  • content locked
    3
    The Education of Young Ladies
  • content locked
    4
    The Making of a Female Teacher
  • content locked
    5
    Conclusion
  • content locked
    Back Matter