nitarians considered schooling only one step in the improvement of mankind, and not even the most decisive one. Instead, human dependence on social surroundings made Unitarians also take the formative years of early childhood into account – and as such, they reconsidered the role of women and mothers. Lant Carpenter (1780-1840), a renowned Unitarian minister and educational theorist, emphasized that “the education of infancy and childhood and much of the most important moral culture of the more advanced period will be derived, if obtained at all, from the female sex” (Carpenter 202, cited in Watts 280). It was a widely shared belief among Unitarians that women’s task was to “lay the foundations of the future patriot and Christian,” promote “just and large views of life” and increase “human happiness” (Le Breton 192; quoted in Watts 281). In light of these demands, Unitarians were staunch advocates of a female education worthy of the name.
Their curriculum aligns with prevailing views on female education only at first glance: The lack of classics and the inclusion of modern languages and natural history made Unitarian schools seem respectable to the Middle class. Still, the fact that many women who either were Unitarians themselves or educated by Unitarians became famous translators of German literature and philosophy proves that these institutions provided a very thorough education (Watts 276).
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) by George Richmond, RA (1809-1896). 1849. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London NPG 1796. Click on image to enlarge it.
Other Unitarians, however, stressed the importance of classics for the improvement of a person’s reasoning capacities and pressed for instructing women in them. In Household Education Harriet Martineau, for instance, argued that the classics, which provided a perfect remedy for superficiality and imprudence, thereby prepared women for their domestic responsibilities: “For my part I have no hesitation in saying that the most ignorant women I have known have been the worst housekeepers; and that the most learned women I have known have been among the best” (221-22; quoted in Watts 277).
Apart from secondary education, Unitarians revolutionized also higher education by establishing their own, non-sectarian educational institutions. Landmarks like Bedford College (founded in 1849) even employed both men and women in its administration, which makes it “a pioneer in the co-operation of the sexes in educational management” (Watts 278). Before such educational opportunities were available, Unitarians — women as well as men — had to study abroad. Germany was particularly popular with them. The ensuing familiarity with, and eventual appreciation of, German romanticism and philosophy became decisive in the later development of Unitarian thought and in the formation of the so-called Unitarian Radicals.
Despite their contribution to women’s education and their belief in the equality of the sexes, most of the early Unitarians did not entertain modern feminist ideas. In her study on the relation between radical Unitarianism and early feminism, Kathryn Gleadle underlines that “even those Unitarians customarily attributed with progressive attitudes towards women perpetuated many of the conservative mores of contemporary culture” (24).
The Unitarian emphasis on the significance of “right” mothering for a person’s moral growth indicates their focus on the domestic life. Women were considered “relative creatures” (Gleadle 24), beings who did not live for their own benefit or fulfillment but that of others, especially their families. Even the excellent education some of the Unitarian women received was expected to be put to use within the limits of meeting and advancing the interests of their husbands (Ross, quoted in Gleadle 25). As a result, an increasing number of Unitarian women began to sense a contradiction between the Unitarians’ theory of self-fulfillment and their practice of demanding women to meet social conventions. Their growing frustration made them receptive to feminist ideas – only one of many influences that were to change Unitarianism in the early nineteenth century,
Related Material
- Introduction
- Philosophical foundations of Unitarianism – John Locke, Moral Sense, and David Hartley
- Unitarianism’s social vision
- “Loose the female mind” – Unitarianism and feminism
- The Unitarian Radicals
- The Monthly Repository
- Unitarianism and Utilitarianism
- The Philosophic Radicals
Bibliography
Carpenter, Lant. Principles of Education. London 1820.
Gleadle, Kathryn. The Early Feminists. Radical Unitarians and the Emergence of the Women’s Rights Movement, 1831-51. London: MacMillan, 1998.
Le Breton, A.L. (ed.). Correspondence of Dr. Channing and Lucy Aikin, 1826-42. London, 1874.
Martineau, Harriet. Household Education. London 1870.
Ross, Janet. Three Generations of English Women. Memoirs and Correspondence of Susannah Taylor, Sarah Austin and Lady Duff Gordon. T. Fisher Unwin, 1983.
Watts, Ruth E. “The Unitarian Contribution to the Development of Female Education, 1790-1850.” History of Education 9(4) 1980: 273-86.
Last modified 15 September 2020