Educating women : schooling and identity in England and France, 1800-1867 / Christina de Bellaigue.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Bellaigue, Christina.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Education--England--History--19th century.

Women.

Women--Education--France--History--19th century.

Women--Education.

History.

France.

England.

Physical Description:

viii, 276 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

In the first part of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of middle-class families were taking the education of their daughters seriously, and boarding schools were multiplying on both sides of the Channel. Schoolmistresses-rarely, in fact, the 'reduced gentlewomen' of nineteenth-century fiction-were not only often successful entrepreneurs, but also played an important part in the development of the teaching profession, and in the expansion of secondary education. Uncovering their careers and the experiences of their pupils reveals the possibilities and constraints of the lives of middle-class women in England and France in the period 1800-1867.

Those who crossed the Channel in the nineteenth century often commented on the differences they discovered between the experiences of French and English women. Women in France seemed to participate more fully in social and cultural life than their counterparts in England. On the other hand, English girls were felt to enjoy considerably more freedom than young French women. Using the development of schooling for girls as a lens through which to examine the lives of women on either side of the Channel, Educating Women explores such contrasts. It reveals that the differences observed by contemporaries were rooted in the complex interaction of differing conceptions of the role of women with patterns of educational provision, with religion, with the state, and with differing rhythms of economic growth. Exploring a neglected area of the history of education, it illuminates the history of the professions, the history of women and the relationship between gender and national identity in the nineteenth century.

Contents:

The development of schooling for girls in England and France

Becoming a schoolmistress

The business of school-keeping

Teaching as a profession

Becoming a schoolgirl

Lessons and learning

Crossing the channel.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [240]-257) and index.

ISBN:

0199289980

9780199289981

OCLC:

122715331