Pamphlet "On the Education of Women" Proposing a National Movement, London 1871

On the Education of Women. A Paper Read by Mrs. William Grey, at the Meeting of the Society of Arts." William Ridgeway: London, 1871. Pamphlet. 64 pages. 5.5" x 8" inches. Maria Georgina Grey was a British writer and women's education advocate. In this paper she writes "The subject I have specially to call your attention to this evening is the low condition of female education, the inadequate provision made for it out of the endowments of the country, and the difficulty of obtaining support from the general public for any scheme having for its object the higher education of women." Much of the paper concerns education for girls as a path to long-term freedom, "It is easy to laugh at old maids, it is easy to praise them as the sisters of mercy of life, it is not easy to measure the amount of silence suffering, of slow wasting away of hope, of energy, of faculty, as the woman sees her youth passing away, the boundless horizon of earlier years narrowing more and more, middle age finding her as helplessly dependent in her father's house, as unable to gratify a single taste, to follow a single pursuit, which does not chime in with his fancies, as she was at 18, or left along to struggle, untrained and unarmed, in the fierce battle of life for the very means of living." In the paper she proposes the formation of a national movement for promoting women's education, "Such an Association might be represented in London by a central committee, connected with local committees formed in every considerable country town. By common action from all these different centres, a body of evidence might be collected on every point connected with the better education of girls of all classes." Grey went on to form just such an organization, the National Union of the Improving the Education of Women of All Classes, later renamed the Women's Education Union. The union, of which Grey was an active member, established the Girls' Public Day School Company in 1872 to provide new schools for girls across social classes. Front and back soft covers missing. Inscription in pencil reads "From the Author 25" on title page. Textblock clean. Overall good condition.