Women in a Man's World
Eliza Fenwick's Secresy
In examining how women fit into the "men's world" of the late eighteenth century, I studied Eliza Fenwick's novel Secresy and its treatment of women, particularly in terms of education. What I found to be most striking in the novel is the clash between two very different approaches to the education of women. One of these, the traditional view, is amply expressed by works such as Jean-Jaques Rousseau's Emile, which states that women have a natural tendency toward obedience and therefore education should be geared to enhance these qualities (Rousseau, pp. 370, 382, 366). Dr. John Gregory's A Father's Legacy to His Daughters also belongs to this school of thought, stating that wit is a woman's "most dangerous talent" and is best kept a well-guarded secret so as not to excite the jealousy of others (Gregory, p. 15). This view, which sees women as morally and intellectually inferior, is expressed in the novel in the character of Mr. Valmont, who incarcerates his orphaned niece in a remote part of his castle. He asserts that he has determined her lot in life and that her only duty is to obey him "without reserve or discussion" (Fenwick, p.55). This oppressive view of education served to keep women subservient by keeping them in an ignorant, child-like state. By denying them access to true wisdom and the right to think, women were reduced to the position of "a timid, docile slave, whose thoughts, will, passions, wishes, should have no standard of their own, but rise, or change or die as the will of the master should require" (Fenwick, 156).
Opposing this view is the radical, or feminist, version of education, echoed in the works of such authors as Mary Wollstonecraft and Hester Chapone. Chapone, a member of the feminist bluestockings, writes in her Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Addressed to a Young Lady that young girls should "seize every opportunity of improvement" through the study of "those persons, and those books, from which you can learn true wisdom." In her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft presents the idea that women could be on par with men if they were given an equal education. This idea is clearly expressed in the character of Sibella Valmont, Mr. Valmont's niece, who at one point tells her learned friend, Caroline Ashburn:
I feel within the vivifying principle of intellectual life.
Using Caroline Bingley as a foil to Elizabeth, Austen critiques the aspirations and achievements that are traditionally considered to be of value to women. Caroline’s outlook regarding what makes women accomplished finds resonance with James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women (1766). These stereotypical regency-era ideals encourage ‘instruction in the fine arts’ (Fordyce, 127), including the study of embroidery, drawing, music and dance and completely discount the value of academic achievements. In contrast, Elizabeth is deeply interested in intellectual pursuits yet has not received a typical female education with ‘steady and regular instruction’ (Austen, 161) administered by a governess. Although Austen contrasts these two methods of education,
Born as a free woman in London, England Mary argued for education along with unjust laws for women that subjected them to a form of slavery. As the world around her at the time was facing a political breakthrough with the United States using idea’s formed by philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes theories in the social contract, to break free from England, she hoped the French Revolution would create an era of equality and reason. Wollstonecraft places her opinion that the condition of adult women is caused by the neglect of education for girls. Most of the essay is based on her argument for education of
As mentioned above, women’s role were unjust to the roles and freedoms of the men, so an advanced education for women was a strongly debated subject at the beginning of the nineteenth century (McElligott 1). The thought of a higher chance of education for women was looked down upon, in the early decades of the nineteenth century (The American Pageant 327). It was established that a women’s role took part inside the household. “Training in needlecraft seemed more important than training in algebra” (327). Tending to a family and household chores brought out the opinion that education was not necessary for women (McElligott 1). Men were more physically and mentally intellectual than women so it was their duty to be the educated ones and the ones with the more important roles. Women were not allowed to go any further than grammar school in the early part of the 1800’s (Westward Expansion 1). If they wanted to further their education beyond grammar, it had to be done on their own time because women were said to be weak minded, academically challenged and could n...
Education did not form part of the life of women before the Revolutionary War and therefore, considered irrelevant. Women’s education did not extend beyond that of what they learned from their mothers growing up. This was especially true for underprivileged women who had only acquired skills pertaining to domesticity unlike elite white women during that time that in addition to having acquired domestic skills they learned to read a result becoming literate. However, once the Revolutionary War ended women as well as men recognized the great need for women to obtain a greater education. Nonetheless, their views in regards to this subject differed greatly in that while some women including men believed the sole purpose of educating women was in order to better fulfil their roles and duties as wives and mothers others believed the purpose of education for women was for them “to move beyond the household field.” The essays of Benjamin Rush and Judith Sargent Murray provide two different points of view with respects to the necessity for women to be well educated in post-revolutionary America.
"This is the very point I aim at. I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves" (Wollstonecraft 63). Wollstonecraft made this statement in response to Roseau dictating that if society "[Educated] women like men..." (Wollstonecraft 63), and women would resemble the male sex, and then carry less power over men. Instead of succumbing to men, Wollstonecraft stressed how education could elevate a women to reach equal statue in society. Following similar ideas to the Tao Te Ching and the Art of War, Wollstonecraft serves education as a tool of discipline to women who can use it to help elevate them in society. Wollstonecraft points out in her introduction that, "One cause to [the problem of women sacrificing their usefulness and strength to beauty attributes] to a false system of education..." (Wollstonecraft 6), and how a reformation and push for women to better educate themselves and look past what is currently there will help them reach higher status in society; therefore giving them their own independence. As Wollstonecraft dictates, "It follows then, I think, that from their infancy women should either be shut up like eastern princes, or educated in such a manner as to be able to think and act for themselves (Wollstonecraft
Eliza Fenwick’s Secresy clearly shows a seclusion of the innocent female, Sibella. Sibella’s seclusion from society is a prevalent theme in late eighteenth century literature; a theme of “public men” and “private women” (Stafford 138). The idea is that men are expected to be part of more social locations than the domestic and controllable women. Many “proper” female writers at the time felt that women should not be a part of a “worldly” society as Wakefield firmly stated “it is inadmissible for women to mix in the public haunts of men,” and women should not risk their “delicacy, reserve, and moral purity” by venturing into a “worldly” society (Stafford 139). Women should not be a part of this male society and the only “safe place” for young women is “domestic privacy”; secluding themselves from the haunts of the “worldly” society and protecting themselves from the faults of “public” men (Stafford 139). Sibella is fully secluded from society; she has very little outside contact and is almost a pure example of “domestic privacy.” Not having a “worldly” education, Sibella is kept in seclusion and does not understand social workings; she therefore relies on her only friend to reveal the workings of the world to her. Caroline Ashburn is Sibella’s only friend and is fully exposed to a “worldly” society from the beginnings of her life; therefore, she is not innocent in the sense of Sibella’s location and can deal with the male society. Caroline reveals the world to Sibella and exposes Sibella to her own oppression by the dominant male figures in her life. The revelation of Sibella’s oppression to herself begins a process of rebellion against her oppressors in an effort to enjoy a “worldly” society.
The article starts off looking at the limitations and duties of a woman in the 18th century from the point of view of a man. Women were not permitted to do many professions such as law, economics or science related; these professions were reserved for men. Women were meant to be "the object of knowledge rather than its producer" (Frith 1994, 101) meaning that women were not to be educated but were to only of their responsibilities for pleasing a man, staying beautiful, and staying virtuous. Women were believed to be inferior intellectually and were therefore not to be educated and were basically forced to marry if they wished a decent life. However, Montagu feuded t...
Instead, women were expected to be merely a hardworking wife in the house. However, Benjamin Rush, advocates for the education of women in his essay addressed to The Visitors of the Young Ladies’ Academy in Philadelphia. With his audience consisting of females attending an academy, he focuses the subject of his speech on the support of education of women. In order to appeal to his audience, he calls men who may oppose the “elevation of the female mind” as having the “prejudice of little minds”. To end his speech to the The Visitors of the Young Ladies’ Academy in Philadelphia, he promises to “correct the mistakes and practice of [his] sex”. He also assures to demonstrate that “female temper can only be governed by reason” and that same reason is “friendly to the order of nature,…to
Madeleine Neveu eloquently gives words of wisdom to her daughter Catherine in her piece entitled, "Epistle to My Daughter." Madeleine is quite aware of the attitude surrounding educated women in her time period. Yet, she abandons those opinions to express her own for her daughter. Her epistle embraces the need for a woman to be true to herself and to stand on her own two feet, as opposed to relying on a man to hold her up.
Misogyny is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as the “hatred or dislike of, or prejudice against women” (2016). Eighteenth-century England was undoubtedly a misogynistic society where women were denied the same privileges and rights as men and often led limited lives. With the emergence of prose narrative and novels in the eighteenth-century as a literary form, a more nuanced portrayal of women also followed. In Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. (1722) and John Cleland’s Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748-9), the texts feature the struggles of an unprotected, lower-class female protagonist against the hostile and misogynistic society of eighteenth-century England. This essay
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The literary titles by Frances Power Cobbe, Sarah Stickney Ellis, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Sir Henry Newbolt, and Caroline Norton reveal society's view on women and men during the Victorian era. Throughout the Victorian era, women were treated as inferior and typically reduced to roles as mothers and wives. Some women, however, were fortunate to become governesses or schoolteachers. Nevertheless, these educated women were still at the mercy of men. Males dominated the opinions of women, and limited their influence in society. From an early age, young men were trained to be dominant figures and protectors over their home and country. Not until after World War I would women have some of these same opportunities as men.
In the Victorian Period receiving an education was an act of unconformity. Women were to be pure, domestic, and submissive and these traits could not be achieved through education. The education of women was thought to disrupt the social balance of time, but in the Victorian Period women were educated because they were mothers of men. They wanted women to teach their children so they had to be educated. Women were stripped of their rights and dignity, but they were finally free to break through the co...