The Educated Woman

'...this book is an impressive piece of work. By examining scientific and medical theories about womens higher education, Katharina Rowold illuminates two key themes. In the first place, she shows how social Darwinist and eugenic thought was shaped and reshaped by different national contexts and how this process helped to frame debates about the admission of women to university. Second, she explores how both those in favour and those against the higher education of women drew on the rhetoric of science to articulate their arguments.' - William Whyte, University of Oxford, UK 'The Educated Woman is a valuable and thoroughly researched study that illuminates the interaction of numerous different strands the scientific, the medical, the religious, the political within specific national contexts and particular historical moments on this important topic.' - Lesley A. Hall, Wellcome Library, UK "The Educated Woman is a significant comparative study that challenges us to re-examine the part played by both feminists and anti-feminists in the struggle for womens access to higher education. It is an important new source for both undergraduate and graduate courses."- Sandra L. Singer, Professor of German, Alfred University, US '...this book is an impressive piece of work. By examining scientific and medical theories about womens higher education, Katharina Rowold illuminates two key themes. In the first place, she shows how social Darwinist and eugenic thought was shaped and reshaped by different national contexts and how this process helped to frame debates about the admission of women to university. Second, she explores how both those in favour and those against the higher education of women drew on the rhetoric of science to articulate their arguments.' - William Whyte, University of Oxford, UK 'The Educated Woman is a valuable and thoroughly researched study that illuminates the interaction of numerous different strands the scientific, the medical, the religious, the political within specific national contexts and particular historical moments on this important topic.' - Lesley A. Hall, Wellcome Library, UK 'Katharina Rowold has made a strong contribution to comparative higher education history with her analysis of how ideas about womens mental and physical capacities developed across time in three European countries.' - Linda Eisenmann, Wheaton College, USA 'Throughout her highly informative and well-researched study, Rowold highlights areas of similarity and difference in the debates about women's admittance to higher education both within the countries themselves and between them and engages at key points with the relevant historiography.' - Helen L. Boak, Women's History Review 'Rowold's monograph deserves a wide readership and will be especially invaluable for anyone interested in women's history in Germany and Spain.' - Helen L. Boak, Women's History Review

Katharina Rowold is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at London Metropolitan University.

Introduction: Womens Higher Education and the Female Mind and Body. Part 1: Britain 1. Science, Feminism, and Sexual Difference: Moulding Female Nature through Higher Education, 1860s1890 2. The Politics of Reproduction and Womens Higher Education, 18851914 Part 2: Germany 3. Women, Bildung, and Culture, 18651900 4. Die akademische Frau: Motherhood, Race, and Culture, 18901914 5. Masculine Minds in Female Bodies: Sexology and Womens Higher Education, 18691914 Part 3: Spain 6. Educated Women Give Birth to Advanced Nations, 18681900 7. After 1898: Degeneration and Regeneration. Conclusion.