Book Review: Pioneering Women’s Education

 

Pioneering Women’s Education

Dorothea Beale, An Unlikely Reformer

by Sally Waller

Pub Date 30 Aug 2022 

 Pen & Sword,  Pen & Sword History

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  History  |  Nonfiction (Adult)

I am Reviewing a copy of Pioneering Women’s Education through Pen & Sword and Netgalley:

Despite being less known as other female campaigners in the nineteenth century, such as Florence Nightingale or Emmeline Pankhurst, Dorothea Beale is nonetheless deserving of wide recognition for her pioneering, and at times radical, ideas. Dorothea's work for the education of girls made just as significant an impact on the liberation of women as did that of Florence Nightingale in ennobling the nursing profession or Emmeline Pankhurst in drawing attention to women's political inferiority.

Despite being very much a woman of her times, Dorothy Beale had widespread involvement in societies promoting women's interests, Dorothea helped to show what women were capable of, providing them with greater confidence and self-belief, through her work as Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, her writings, and her speeches.

Pioneering Women’s Education draws from a large range of original sources in order to trace Dorothea’s life and work.  It considers the formative influences of her youth, her response to the disappointments of her early career and examines how her own educational ideas evolved, were put into practice and came to influence schools and colleges both at home and abroad. As well as an in-depth analysis of her pioneering work in Cheltenham, her many other interests, connections and involvements, including her contribution to the suffrage campaign are also explored. However this book is not just a story of one woman's achievements, great though they were.  This book also helps to paint a picture of who Dorothea was as a person.

I give Pioneering Women’s Education five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!