Degree Name
BA
Department
History
College
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Defense Date
2020-03-09
Publication Date
2020-03-20
First Faculty Advisor
Dr. Rebecca de Schweinitz
First Faculty Reader
Dr. Brandie Siegfried
Honors Coordinator
Dr. Shawn Miller
Keywords
Bathsua Makin, Anna Maria Van Schurman, proto-feminist, metaphysics of womanhood, Margaret Cavendish, women's language learning
Abstract
This thesis explores the intellectual history of proto-feminist thought in early modern England and seeks to better understand the transnational elements of and influences on proto-feminist theorists’ arguments in favor of women’s education in the late seventeenth century. A close reading of Bathsua Makin and Anna Maria Van Schurman’s essays in relation to one another, and within their social and historical context, reveals the importance of ideas of religion and social order, especially class, in understanding and justifying women’s education. The metaphysical foundation of Makin’s arguments in favor of women’s education is that the true nature of women, including their ability to benefit from education, can be confused with longstanding cultural norms limiting their opportunities to learn. Makin and Van Schurman argue that society’s customs should align with women’s inherent abilities and desires, including providing them with educational opportunities – an argument echoed by both contemporary and later proto-feminist authors. Although the ideals expressed in both of their essays focused on the education of elite women, and so appealed primarily to an upper-class audience, a better understanding of how highly educated women advocated for the expanded education of women illuminates a portion of the narrative that has yet to be examined in detail: how and why these proto-feminist authors argued in favor of women’s education, and how their social, religious, and Humanist atmosphere influenced their arguments as well as their understanding of the apparent discrepancy between the ontological and cultural metaphysics of womanhood.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Jessop, Miranda, "“Women Thus Educated”: Transnational Influences on Women’s Arguments for Female Education in Seventeenth-Century England" (2020). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 119.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht/119
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/uht0119