1st—By the establishment of places for a higher education than schools
can offer, such as the projected College for women. Mr. Bryce, in his
interesting “Report on Schools in Lancashire,” says, “The teachers
cannot be greatly blamed for this” (i.e. inefficient teaching), “since
it is the result of the inadequate provision now made in this country
for the instruction of women. Conceive what schoolmasters would be, if
there were in England no Universities, or any foundation schools either
of the higher or the lower grade, and if the private schools, by which
alone education would then be supplied, were to lose the reflex
influence and the stimulating rivalry of these public institutions. This
is exactly what the state of the teachers of girls is now.”
2ndly—By the accordance of University certificates to women, provided
always that these University certificates possess intrinsic value,
declare a due amount of knowledge and of capacity to teach, and are
given “with scrupulous care to none but deserving persons.”
Governesses would, I hope, not be the only women who would avail
themselves of these privileges. Everything is good which tends to break
down the line of social demarcation which still, to a great extent,
separates governesses from other ladies, as once it separated
schoolmasters from other gentlemen; and it is greatly to be desired that
women with a real talent for teaching, whatever their social position,
should actually teach for a few years, and raise the profession of
governesses, as the profession of schoolmasters has been raised, by an
infusion of disinterested zeal and the energy of a voluntary choice.
Any effort in the cause of governesses is important, not only as it
affects individuals at this moment engaged in the profession, but still
more in its bearing upon the future of all English girls and women,
through the prospect which it holds out of an improved education for the
daughters of the middle classes, who, more and more, will have to
maintain themselves. And if we think how much honour and dignity ought
to attach to the office of a teacher (rightly understood) we should,
from the highest motives, be anxious to raise the character and social
standing of those who seek that office. For this question of woman’s
education is far from being one of intellectual progress merely; it is a
question of deep moral import, and enters far into the heart of society,
affecting the best interests of men as well as those of women. Mr.
Francis Newman says, “the increased influence of women” (through
education chiefly) “will keep in check the liquor traffic, and other
abominations which men too readily excuse.” The connection of this
question of woman’s education with some of the most grievous of social
problems is closer than might be supposed. De Tocqueville asked an
American gentleman why open immorality, such as England has to shew, was
so rare in New England: the answer was, “because of the greater respect
which men have for women, the women who are their equals in society.” It
will not be for themselves alone that enlightened and educated women
will demand respect; they will claim it also for poor women, whom it is
too often deemed a light matter to injure in the worst way, and even for
the fallen, who through the voice of their happier sisters shall yet
demand, not only compassion, but the respect due to every human being,
however clouded with misery and sin.
When, on the other hand, we consider the best means of relieving the
profession of Governesses by drafting its incompetent members into other
occupations, the whole question of the employment of women rises before
us, a painful and even a terrible problem. Three principal obstacles
stand in the way of such an enlargement of woman’s opportunities. These
are—
(1.) Prejudice of employers and of the public.
(2.) Combinations among workmen to exclude women from their trades.
(3.) Defective education and training of the women themselves.