DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex

With Suggestions for its Improvement

Priscilla Wakefield author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:27th Apr '15

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This paperback is available in other editions too:

Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex cover

In this 1798 work, Wakefield suggests ways for women without the support of husband or family to earn a living.

In this 1798 work, a fascinating piece of social and feminist history, Wakefield suggests ways for women without the support of a husband or family to earn a living. Her ideas are not radical: she believes that marriage rather than independence is the best outcome for any woman.Coming from a prosperous London Quaker family, the author Priscilla Wakefield (1751–1832) wrote educational books for children, including an introduction to botany (also reissued in this series), and this 1798 work for adults, a fascinating piece of social and feminist history. Wakefield argues for better education for women, and suggests ways for those without the support of a husband or family to earn a living. Her ideas are not radical: she divides women into four social classes, with recommendations on appropriate work for each, and she believes that marriage rather than independence is the best outcome for any woman. Her concern for social norms is illustrated by her belief that field labour and any manufacturing job 'where both sexes are promiscuously assembled' are detrimental to female virtue. There are, however, many occupations which do not destroy 'the peculiar characteristic of their sex', or exceed 'the most exact limits of modesty and decorum'.

ISBN: 9781108084710

Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 13mm

Weight: 400g

208 pages