Early Modern English Women and Education

This website is a compilation of topics that fall under women’s education in the Early Modern period of England.  An examination of the hegemonic, gendered assumptions made about women and the expectations that were therefore established had huge impacts on the opinions, decisions and options for and about the education of English women.  These assumptions are discussed along with a look into how class was a decisive factor in regards to which types of women could and did learn.  Locations of where women learned and what they were supposed to learn based on their sex are also examined.  The purpose of this website is to look at women’s education in Early Modern England through the paradigm of both a gender and class sensitive lens and become more familiar with how and why women became educated in a highly patriarchal society.

#1

Gendered Assumtions in Relation to Education of Women

Class Distinctions and Why They Need to Be Made

Overview of Women's Education in the Early Modern Period

#2

Bibliography and Picture References