Uneven Access: Working-Class Women and the Education Acts

Abstract

This chapter compares the educational barriers faced by working-class women before and after the Education Act of 1870, as reflected in the poignant testimonies of Janet Bathgate, Mary Smith, Marianne Farningham, Hannah Mitchell, Peig Sayers, and several others. As these accounts testify, opportunities for bright and eager children to access formal education varied widely by region, parental occupation, and religious affiliation. The provision of government-sponsored primary education as initiated by the 1870 and later Education Acts, though delayed by minimal attendance requirements, lax enforcement, the politics of local school boards, and the rote nature of the instruction provided, nonetheless marked a seismic shift in widening opportunities for women of the British working classes in the late nineteenth century and beyond.