By Bailey Meyerhoff
Unlike their male counterparts, most women of the mid-eighteenth century did not have access to a formal education. Though social limitations were placed on the reading practices of women, their supposed-common romance-reading habits were viewed as morally corrosive and contributed to the idea that they were incapable of studying scholarly subjects.[1] The 1760s, however, saw the expansion of possible reading material for women in the appearance of periodicals purportedly for a primarily female readership, including the Court Miscellany (1765–71), the Royal Female Magazine (1760), the Lady’s Magazine; or, Polite Companion for the Fair Sex (1759–63), and Charlotte Lennox’s Lady’s Museum (1760–61). These magazines, which contained varying amounts of pedagogical material on such subjects as history, geography, and natural philosophy, were seen by many periodical editors as “safe alternatives” to the work of romance fiction and thus offered female readers the chance to self-educate in a socially acceptable way.[2] Furthermore, because female education garnered significant interest throughout the eighteenth century, it was not uncommon for periodicals to include works on it. Those in favor of expanding women’s access to education “demonstrat[ed] their educability and call[ed] for a more ambitious programme of female study.”[3] The Lady’s Museum was one such periodical. In it, Lennox not only makes the case that women are capable of studying so-called serious subjects such as natural philosophy and history, but she also offers a curriculum for them within the pages of the magazine itself.
This critical introduction explores the Lady’s Museum‘s contribution to the advancement of female education by examining the magazine’s apparently contradictory inclusion of François Fénelon’s “Traité de l’éducation des Filles” (which Lennox translated as “Treatise on the Education of Daughters“); its expansion of women’s access to scholarly disciplines; and its fictional representations of so-called learned women that served as role models for its readership.
Justifying the Museum’s Educational Content
While the Museum’s inclusion of Fénelon’s conservative “Treatise on the Education of Daughters” seems incompatible with Lennox’s philosophy on female education and the praxis of the periodical itself, its incorporation was likely a strategic means of defending the pedagogical nature of the text. Unlike Lennox, the “Treatise” seems interested in the education of women primarily insofar as it assists them in educating their children and as a means of “restrain[ing] and correct[ing] their bad tendencies.”[4] When Fénelon does write about female education for its own sake, he does so apprehensively, advocating for its limitation to the domestic sphere and warning that “we ought to be very careful of making pedantick ladies.”[5] As Italia notes, while the Lady’s Museum does provide readers with a diverse range of academic subjects, there are no educational entries on the domestic topics that Fénelon encourages women to study; thus, Lennox’s inclusion of Fénelon’s “Treatise” can be interpreted as “justifying the periodical’s pedagogical content, offered as an antidote to more frivolous forms of female reading.”[6] In this way, the appearance of “Treatise on the Education of Daughters” in the Lady’s Museum cannot be viewed as representative of Lennox’s perspective on female education, which was in fact much more generous in its consideration of the capacity of the female intellect than Fénelon’s work. Rather, Lennox’s inclusion of the “Treatise” was a strategic means of increasing the social acceptance of her publication and aiding in her mission to expand female education.
Making Education Accessible
The Lady’s Museum also made knowledge—especially that of the historical and scientific variety—more accessible to women. In terms of practicality, Lennox’s periodical was a more financially viable option than educational works of a more technical nature; it also had a format that enabled short periods of engagement as well as portable issues, which allowed for easier circulation. Further, Lennox’s intent towards making the Museum a work both educational and amusing made it a more pleasurable, and therefore more likely, resource for study. Her frequent use of poetic language “was likely to appeal to women who . . . might have been more accustomed to reading romances than scholarly tomes.”[7] It is important to note, however, that Lennox’s engaging use of language did not diminish the magazine’s technical accuracy, especially in series such as the scientific “Philosophy for the Ladies.” As Modia writes, the innovative inclusion of illustrations within the Lady’s Museum made the magazine a more “enticing” work for women to engage with, which aided in its pedagogical success.[8] The miscellany format of the periodical also contributed to its accessibility: by juxtaposing educational excerpts with portions of work such as her serialized novel, Lennox offered readers a balanced curriculum of instruction and entertainment. In this way, the Lady’s Museum was a practical and enjoyable resource for the self-education of female readers, thus making it more successful in achieving its pedagogical goals.
Representing the “Learned Woman”
The Lady’s Museum also offered its readership fictional depictions of educated women that demonstrated the intellectual achievement that Lennox advocated for women to pursue in her work. These fictional characters served as role models for female readers of the periodical and most notably include Lennox’s eidolon (editorial persona), the Trifler, and the titular protagonist of her serialized novel, Sophia.[9] Both the Trifler and Sophia are presented as voracious readers and intellectual women; respectively juxtaposed with beautiful, uneducated sisters that have the favor of their mothers, the intellectual sisters importantly both win the affections of men (thus validating their intelligence). However, while Sophia’s knowledge is represented as a facilitation to her eventual marriage (depicting the “learned woman” as romantically desirable), the Trifler’s intellectuality—endorsed by her educated brother—is more representative of her ambition and independence. For example, in the first issue of the Museum, the Trifler, “with a strong passion for intellectual pleasures,” introduces herself as both a writer and a reader who prioritizes her education over romance.[10] As Modia writes, through her inclusion of female representations such as this within the periodical, “[Lennox] is popularizing behavioural models, other than being idle and interested in simply pleasing their male partners through etiquette.”[11] In her periodical, then, images of characters such as the Trifler and Sophia provide the Museum’s readership with intelligent female examples that they can aspire to, thus broadening the scope of female intellectual potential.
The Lady’s Museum offered a pedagogical curriculum that readers could use to self-educate at a time when formal education remained outside the reach of most women. While Lennox’s magazine does include Fénelon’s advocation for the limitation of female education, the content of the periodical itself reveals it to be a more progressive text—indeed, its inclusion of subjects traditionally excluded from female study made those disciplines more accessible to women. Furthermore, Lennox’s fictional representations of educated women in the periodical work as role models for the magazine’s readership to aspire to. Thus, the Lady’s Museum can be viewed as a proto-feminist text that contributed to the expansion of what was thought possible for women in the way of education and intellectual pursuit.
NOTES
[1] Judith Dorn, “Reading Women Reading History: The Philosophy of Periodical Form in Charlotte Lennox’s the Lady’s Museum,” Historical Reflections 18, no. (Fall 1999): 13-14.
[2] Iona Italia, “‘Studies proper for women’: The Lady’s Museum and the Periodical as an Educational Tool,” The Rise of Literary Journalism in the Eighteenth Century: Anxious Employment (New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2012), 180.
[3] Italia, “Educational Tool,” 178.
[4] Italia, “Educational Tool,” 198–199.
[5] François Fénelon, “Treatise on the Education of Daughters,” trans. Charlotte Lennox, The Lady’s Museum (1760–61), accessed 24 June 2023, https://ladysmuseum.com/teaching/course-reader-documents/treatise-on-the-education-of-daughters-2/.
[6] Italia, “Educational Tool,” 200.
[7] Anna K. Sagal, “Philosophy for the Ladies: Feminism, Pedagogy, and Natural Philosophy in Charlotte Lennox’s Lady’s Museum,” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 28, no. 1 (Fall 2015): 156.
[8] Mariá Jesús Lorenzo Modia, “Education for Women in the Eighteenth-Century Periodical: Charlotte Lennox’s the Lady’s Museum,” (In)Equality and Justice, ed. Ana Anton-Pacheco-Bravo (Madrid: Fundamentals, 2011), 207.
[9] Manushag N. Powell describes eidolons as “fictional personas . . . that [London’s eighteenth-century periodicalists] invented specifically for the new periodical medium, and forced a general populace to reconsider the relationship between public and private—a relationship that was never very clear in the first place.” Manushag N. Powell, Performing Authorship in Eighteenth-Century English Periodicals (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 2012), 3.
[10] “The TRIFLER. [NUMBER I],” The Lady’s Museum, ed. Charlotte Lennox (1760), accessed 24 June 2023, https://ladysmuseum.com/the-trifler-number-i/.
[11] Modia, “Education for Women,” 205.