Defoe's Feminist Discourse 

An Essay About Projects, a collection of articles by Daniel Defoe, includes this work,  An Academy for Women, in which he discusses various topics, including politics, economics, and social issues. An essay by Bathsua Makin titled "An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewoman" inspired Defoe. Because of his absence of education and his upbringing in a dissident home, Defoe experienced some of the inequalities of education just like any woman did. Due to his own experience with this subject and his knowledge of women's concerns as a father of daughters, he highlights the restrictions placed on women's academic opportunities. Furthermore, it is well known that he was a dual agent who switched allegiances frequently depending on the party in power. Because he was an agent, he had information about the Whigs and Tories in the parliament. This piece is satirically meant to criticize the parliament rather than women's lack of education.

Women's rights were still not of a sufficient dimension in the 18th century. In the mid-17th century, paid boarding schools for women began to be opened, although they were not as "high quality" as the education provided to men. However, these schools were only accessible to middle and upper-class women and what was taught was very limited. Even at these institutions, instruction was limited to reading, writing, singing, stitching, and languages like French and Italian. Since it was deemed too logical for the feminine intellect, women were not trained in disciplines like maths, physics, economics, or even grammar until the late 18th century. Despite their popularity, women were prevented from studying science, maths, and physics. For their daughters, middle-class women focused on cooking, sewing, and weaving. The primary objective, according to Defoe, was to make them "marriable" good companions for their future husbands.

While Defoe supports women's access to education, he also touches on several other concepts, including religious, social, and capitalistic topics, making the book uncontroversial. He uses the phrase "He made nothing needless," as an illustration (Defoe 120). He emphasizes that women should use the mind that God has given them. Anybody who rejects this notion acknowledges that God created anything unnecessary, which is a sin. A good, intelligent company is essential for everyone. Speaking of the middle and higher classes, Defoe asserts that a man must also have an educated wife to seem respectable in society.

Also, an educated lady will likely have educated children, leading to an educated nation in the future. He continues by comparing teaching women to train a horse by utilizing the analogy of a horse. Horses were expensive and valuable creatures at the time. He wonders why someone who trains their horses does not train their wives or daughters (Defoe 125). As he knows his audience, he uses horse images. It cannot be stated that a male in those days would grasp the need for women to get an education if one went to him and explained why. So why not educate ladies and use them to men's advantage just like they would a horse? An educated girl can also marry a member of the higher class. Defoe speaks to every group in society with all of these concepts.

Men at the time typically did not return from war alive. A married lady with children would be left in this condition, which substantially diminishes the worth of women. She had to support herself and her children, but women were not allowed to work at the time. Women were solely viewed as childbearing breeders because the Bible was misinterpreted. Hence, most women either engaged in leisure activities or sought employment by pretending to be males. But if discovered, women who purported to be males faced harsh punishment.

According to Defoe, the women's academy should be in a secure location. But his description makes it seem like a prison. And the purpose of that is to exclude men. He understands how men think and their capabilities since he is a man. The concept behind this prison-like academy may appear sexist if it simply considered him as a male writer. When it is realized that he is the father of daughters, though, everything changes. Therefore, even though they are confined in a prison-like facility, women are free to behave as they wish in comparison to the world outside the academy. If they want to marry the one, they can marry; if they want to leave the academy, they can leave. Unlike the world outside the academy, in the academy women's own choices mattered. During the 18th century, women's choices did not matter. Without a man, women could do nothing at that time. Even if they were not married, they needed their fathers or brothers to have a say in anything. Regrettably, women's voices were meaningless at the time without a man. So, for a woman in the 18th century, this academy was a place where they could be free and have their opinions heard. As men were not permitted to enroll at the academy and all of the educators were female, it can also be seen as a career opportunity. Women attending this institution would also get governess training, which would eventually become common in the 19th and 20th centuries.

As a consequence, in that century when women suffered when they were disregarded, and considered as just a baby factory - it is terrible that in some places, these notions are still current - it is heartening to have someone come out and say, 'Hey, did men ever consider that it is unfair what is being done to women, the education that is not being offered?' Men used to say that women were unintelligent and uneducable and that they could not be educated, but they were the ones who did it to them. If one does not teach their horse, how can one expect it to behave well? How can one assume this is the limit of a woman's brain if they do not educate her? As Aristophanes says in the play Lysistrata, "What matters that I was born a woman if I can cure your misfortunes? I pay my share of tolls and taxes by giving men to the State. But you, you miserable greybeards, you contribute nothing to the public charges; on the contrary, you have wasted the treasure of our forefathers... You pay nothing at all in return, and in the bargain, you endanger our lives and liberties by your mistakes. Have you one word to say for yourselves?... Ah! Do not irritate me, you there, or I will lay my slipper across your jaws, and it is pretty heavy." (Scene 3, Lysistrata).

Works Cited

Defoe, Daniel. “An Essay upon Projects.” An Essay upon Projects, by Daniel Defoe, www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4087/pg4087-images.html. 

Aristophanes' Lysistrata Aristophanes (c.446–c.386 BC) - Lysistrata: Translated by George Theodoridis. Available at: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Lysistrata.php