In the Letters on Education written by Thomas Macaulay in 1790, I personally had a difficult time trying to figure out just what exactly Macaulay was trying to say. He begins his letter by giving three rules regarding male and female education, and openly asserts that there should exist an equality between men and women when it comes to education. Likewise, at several points throughout his letters Macaulay brings up issues regarding female education that are similar to those raised by Wollstonecraft.
The perception of women as objects of beauty and delicacy is the most influential factor that Macaulay believes to be hindering the education of women. From his perspective, the issue of female education begins from the very moment that they are brought into the world "From a false notion of beauty and delicacy, their system of nerves is depraved before they come out of their nursery" (Macaulay, 403). Macaulay goes on to point out that, in spite of how common it is for women to be taught that their beauty is their most defining feature, "They are told indeed, that they must abstain from those vices which are contrary to their personal happiness" (Macaulay, 404). Furthermore, similar to how Wollstonecraft argued that women turn to prostitution for lack of a better option, Macaulay states that "Lying, flattery, hypocrisy, bribery, and a long catalogue of the meanest of the human vices, must all be employed to preserve necessary appearances" (Macaulay, 406).
In spite of the several arguments raised by Macaulay in favor of education for women, I can't help feeling that I'm missing something. Considering the time period with which he wrote, I suppose it should come as no surprise that in the midst of arguing why women should have an equal education, Macaulay makes some rather interesting statements. While he does state that the subjugation of women is at the hands of men, Macaulay holds women equally accountable: "suffer them to idolize their persons, to throw away their life in the pursuit of trifles, and to indulge in the gratification of the meaner passions, and they will heartily join in the sentence of their degradation" (Macaulay, 402). Likewise, although he is arguing for their equal treatment, Macaulay seems to assume that women hold some sort of inherent evilness, "Vanity, and its companion Envy, must taint, in their characters, every native and every acquired excellence" (Macaulay, 404). To be completely honest, it may be possible that i'm reading these passages wrong, and that this isn't what Macaulay is saying, but is what he is understands other writers to be stating.
I find Macaulay's analysis of the treatment of women between Eastern and Western societies to be quite innovative. In comparison to the Western world, whose treatment of women is obscure and a bit of a taboo to discuss, the treatment of women in the East is a far more blatant form of slavery, However, this differences between our two worlds isn't nearly as wide as we are led to believe, as Macaulay points out that "with a total and absolute exclusion of every political right to the sex in general, marries women, whose situation demand a particular indulgence, have hardly a civil right to save them from the grossest injuries"(Macaulay, 405).
Discussion Questions:
1) What is Macaulay trying to say about the nature of women in comparison to men? Are they both flawed? Is one sex more at fault than the other?
2) What perception does Macaulay have of his contemporary writers, like Rousseau and Mr. Pope? Where does he agree and disagree with them?
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