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5139P WOMEN SUFFRAGE-PT-Bp.Qxd 13/6/08 12:45 Page 126 5139P WOMEN SUFFRAGE-PT-bp.qxd 13/6/08 12:45 Page 126 UNIT Educating women and 8 girls: the key to success? What is this unit about? This unit focuses on the education of girls and women in this period. It considers the changing educational opportunities open to them and the reasons why these opportunities changed and developed. The education of girls from poor families is addressed, as is that of girls from middle-class and wealthy homes. The opening of higher education to young women is considered. Changing attitudes to the education of girls and young women by the state, by men and by the girls and women themselves, permeate this enquiry. Key questions • How far had the education of women and girls improved during this period? • To what extent did education overturn the ‘separate spheres’ philosophy? Timeline 1850 Frances Mary Buss founded the North London Collegiate School for Ladies 1858 Dorothea Beale became principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College 1864 Schools Enquiry Commission set up to investigate the education of children from middle-class homes 1865 formation of the Kensington Society 1865 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson becomes first woman on the Medical Register 1869 first women’s college at Cambridge University founded in Hitchin, moving to Girton in 1872 1870 Forster’s Education Act introduced a dual system of education, whereby the state provided schools to fill gaps left by the voluntary sector 1871 Newnham College, Cambridge, founded 1876 Sandon’s Act penalised parents who kept their children away from school Enabling Bill, authorising all medical corporations to admit women to their examinations 1880 Mundella’s Act made education compulsory for children under the age of thirteen 1891 a government grant made education free in elementary schools 1892 St Hilda’s College, Oxford, founded 1893 school leaving age fixed at eleven 1899 school leaving age raised to twelve 126 5139P WOMEN SUFFRAGE-PT-bp.qxd 13/6/08 12:45 Page 127 Unit 8: Educating women and girls 1111 1902 Balfour’s Act sets up local education authorities to take over the administration 2 of education from school boards 3 4 1906 free school meals introduced for the children of the poor 5 1907 free medical inspections introduced for the children of the poor 6 free places in secondary schools for the children of the poor 7 8 1918 Fisher’s Act raised the school leaving age to fourteen 9 1011 1 Source A 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 8.1 By 1870, the National Society for the 1 Education of the Poor in the Principles of the 2 Established Church controlled over 17,000 3 schools, all of which were called National 4 Schools. This is the ground plan of one of 5 these schools: the National School in Tring, 6 Hertfordshire. It was drawn on a scale of 500 7 inches to 1 mile and published by Ordnance 8 Survey in 1876. 9 40111 1 2 S IL S BUIL ER 3 K L D 4 1 What does this school plan tell you about the education of boys and 5 girls in Tring School at this time? 6 2 What tentative conclusions can you draw from this plan about 7 attitudes towards the education of girls? 8222 127 5139P WOMEN SUFFRAGE-PT-bp.qxd 13/6/08 12:45 Page 128 Women and the Suffrage Question c.1860–1930 It was, of course, important to fight for the rights of women to vote in general elections and so have an input into the ways in which the country was governed. But if women were to play a full part in society they had to be enabled to enter the world of work – and enter it on the same terms as men. The key to this was education. How important was legislation in providing education for working-class girls? Before 1870, the Christian church was heavily involved in providing Definition elementary education for working-class children. The non-conformist British and Foreign Schools Society and the Anglican National Society Dame school took the largest part and were in receipt of government grants for doing A small primary school so. There were other schools, dame schools for example, that provided run mainly by women in non-sectarian education, but these were by far in a minority. Education, their own homes. however, was not compulsory and it was not free. It was therefore inevitable that girls from poor families lost out. When young, they were Non-sectarian education kept at home to help raise younger siblings; when old enough to earn a An education not based wage, they were usually sent into domestic service. Why, after all, did on religion or religious girls need to learn to read and write? principles. Times, though, were changing. The continuing population growth put enormous pressure and increasing strain on the ability of the voluntary sector to provide sufficient schools and teachers in the cities, towns and villages that wanted them, and there were increasingly large gaps in the provision they were able to make. It was at this point that the Liberal MP for Bradford, West Yorkshire, W.E. Forster, put forward his education bill. 1870 Elementary Education Act (Forster’s Act) In Source B, W.E. Forster explains to the House of Commons why urgent action is necessary. Source B We must not delay. Upon the speedy provision of elementary education depends our industrial prosperity. It is of no use trying to give technical teaching to our artisans without elementary education; uneducated labourers – and many of our labourers are uneducated – are, for the most part, unskilled labourers, and if we leave our workfolk any longer unskilled, notwithstanding their strong sinews and determined energy, they will become over-matched in the competition of this world. Upon this speedy provision depends also, I fully believe, the good, the safe working of our constitutional system. To its honour, parliament has lately decided that England shall in future be governed by popular government. I am one of those who would not wait until the people were educated before I would trust them with political power. If we had thus waited we might have waited long for education, but now that we have given them political power we must not wait any longer to give them education. Part of W.E. Forster’s speech to MPs, from Hansard 17 February 1870 128 5139P WOMEN SUFFRAGE-PT-bp.qxd 13/6/08 12:45 Page 129 Unit 8: Educating women and girls 1111 2 Source C Questions 3 There shall be in every school district a sufficient amount of public elementary • What reasons does 4 schools for all children. Forster give for 5 Where there is an insufficient number of schools, a School Board shall be formed needing to educate 6 to supply such deficiency. working-class children? 7 Every child attending a school shall pay fees prescribed by the School Board. The • There is no mention 8 Board may remit part of such fee when they are of the opinion the child is unable here of girls. How far 9 to pay because of poverty. could Forster’s 1011 If a School Board satisfies the Education Department that, on the grounds of Education Act help in 1 poverty, it is expedient to provide a school at which no fees shall be required, the their education? 2 Board may provide such a school. 3111 4 Any sum required to meet any deficiency in the school fund shall be paid out of 5 the local rate. 6 Every School Board may make bye-laws (i) requiring the parents of children of 7 such age, not less than five years nor more than thirteen years, to cause such 8 children (unless here is some reasonable excuse) to attend school, provided that 9 any such bye-law shall provide for the exemption of a child if one of Her 20111 Majesty’s Inspectors certifies that such child has reached a standard of education specified in such bye-law. 1 2 From Statutes of the Realm (the 33rd and 34th Statute of Victoria) 3 summarising some of the main clauses of Forster’s Education Act, 1870 4 5 The underlying importance of the 1870 Act was that the state, having 6 previously subsidised voluntary education, was now going to supplement Questions 7 it. Voluntary schools were not abolished; the state simply filled the gaps in • Do these statistics 8 the provision supplied by the voluntary sector (see Unit 3, pages 32–4). prove that legislation 9 Overall, far more school places were provided: new state-funded schools was effective in raising 30111 were built, and the voluntary sector, in the spirit of competition, did literacy levels? 1 likewise. 2 • How would you explain 3 In 1880, Mundella’s Act made attendance at school compulsory for children the consistently lower 4 aged between five and ten, and, in 1891, education in elementary schools performances of girls 5 was free to all pupils as the result of a government grant. School when compared to that 6 Attendance Committees were set up to enforce these regulations and so, of boys? 7 it was assumed, drive up literacy. 8 9 Source D 40111 100 94.0 1 Key Male Female 93.0 80.6 2 80 75.4 73.2 67.3 69.3 65.3 54.8 3 60 51.1 4 40 8.2 Rises in literacy level, Percentage 5 20 1841–96 from M. Sanderson 6 0 Education, Economic Change 7 1841 1851 1861 1871 1896 and Society in England 8222 Year 1780–1870 published in 1983 129 5139P WOMEN SUFFRAGE-PT-bp.qxd 13/6/08 12:45 Page 130 Women and the Suffrage Question c.1860–1930 1902 Education Act (Balfour’s Act) Until this Act, full-time education beyond the elementary stage was open only to those parents (generally middle-class) who could afford the fees of grammar, private or public schools.
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