of politics. Mary Wollstonecraft attacked educational restrictions, condemning them as a way to keep women in a state of ignorance and dependant on men. Many feminists agreed with this, since any education that girls could receive concentrated mainly on music and art. Girls were educated in a variety of informal ways from factory schools for factory workers to home teaching from parents to fee-paying schools run by older women. A few feminists decided to challenge the inability to be educated properly by starting up their own schools. Schools like North London Collegiate School for Ladies and Cheltenham Ladies College allowed women to get the sort of education needed to have academic careers. This was all well and good but still it was very difficult for women to gain university standard education. This was helped in 1870 when Emily Davis and Barbara Bodichon helped set up Girton college, the first university for women. This was however not recognised as a university by the education boards and therefore not recognised by professions. As the feminist movement progressed the government began to take more notice of the wants and desires of more than half the population. The construction of the state education system from 1870 to 1914 seemed to be in response to the campaigns of women, however domestic skills were still taught to girls to pacify the men who feared that Britain might be in moral decline. This was important for the government to do since it wasnt until 1918 when women got the vote, so they had no real influence on elections or politics. All in all the state education system didnt really effect female pupils that much, since in 1910 there was only just over 1,000 female pupils attending Oxford and Cambridge universities and for each lecture permission had to be granted by the lecturer. Degrees were still not allowed to be taken.In America the ability to gain education was far superior. In 1850 11,000 women were...
