The Higher Education of Women (1866)
Emily Davies

'The vague information that women are to be ministering angels is no answer to the practical questions, Whom are they to help, and how?'

Victorian idealisation of women a 'ministering angels' had the practical result of limiting their education to accomplishments', proving little to occupy their minds. The Higher Education of Women by Emily Davies, first published in 1866 makes a forthright and vigorous case for the extension of professional and university education for women. This would enrich women's minds, train them to think clearly about whatever they were in, and qualify them for the many professions to which they would be able to make a positive contribution.

Emily Davies was the founder of Girton College, the first college to give women a university education, which opened at Hitchin in 1869 and moved to Cambridge in 1873. She was adamant that women should sit the same examinations as men and was a leading early campaigner for women's suffrage.