The Schooling of Girls in Britain and Ireland, 1800- 1900

This is a comparison of the schooling of girls in the UK in the Victorian period, focusing on the interaction of gender, class, religion and nationality. It reveals how middle-class women used reform to establish a public role for themselves based on a domesticated life for their lower class 'sisters'.

Jane McDermid is Reader in Women's and Gender History at Southampton University. She is the author of The Schooling of Working-Class Girls in Victorian Scotland: Gender, Education and Identity (Routledge, 2005) and has served on the Steering Committee of the UK's Women's History Network, 2005-09.

1. Introduction 2. Gender and Social Control in the Education of Working-Class Girls 3. The Education of Young Ladies 4. The Making of a Female Teacher 5. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index