Victorian Attitudes: The Weaker Sex & Education

Victorian Attitudes: The Weaker Sex & Education

After reading one little segment (a “one-night stand”) within Richard Shenkman and Kurt Reiger’s One-Night Stands with American History: Odd, Amusing, and Little-Known Incidents. I have just one thing to say: I was born in the correct century. Maybe not as far as chivalry and honor among men go, but definitely as far as prevailing attitudes regarding education of females. I share one section of Shenkman and Reiger’s entertaining book, with two cited sources.

WOMEN ARE DUMBER

In the late 1800’s many physicians regarded increased female education as a primary factor in a general decline of female health. A woman’s brain was simply not capable of assimilating a great deal of academic instruction (and that’s just the beginning of the quote).