1.

Medieval women: mental maths and life in the nunnery

During the medieval period, education was primarily provided by the Church
and family. Monks and nuns, were paid to teach sons of wealthy families.
However, daughters were not typically included unless they were to become
nuns themselves. Middle-class women could be highly educated and pass this
knowledge onto their daughters, enabling them to manage their households.
Evidence of this literacy can be found in women's writing, such as 'Why I Can't
Be a Nun', a fourteenth-century poem about a young woman's refusal to enter
a nunnery due to its corrupt nature. Even uneducated peasant women were not
stupid, as they had to calculate bartering and debts in their heads,
demonstrating their mental maths and memory abilities.

2. Early modern women: the freedom of an education

The early modern period was a period of two steps forward, with women
enjoying greater freedom and education. The growing merchant class led to
more people seeking to educate their daughters to help in the family business.
Merchants often left their businesses to their wives in their wills, demonstrating
that women were well-educated to fulfill these roles. Aphra Behn, a highly
educated woman in the early modern period, was a notable example of a highly
educated woman. She was employed as a spy by Charles II in Antwerp during
the Second Anglo-Dutch War and later wrote plays for a living. Virginia Woolf
praised her for earning women the right to speak their minds.

3. Georgian women: dame schools and governesses

The Georgian period in Britain marked a decline in women's education and
freedoms, with the beginnings of the Bluestocking movement and the writings
of thinkers like Mary Wollstonecraft. However, the'separate spheres' theory,
which divided men and women in work and childcare, led to a shift in
education. Wealthy families no longer educated daughters alongside
sons,resulting in girls being sent to 'dame schools' or taught by governesses,
focusing on their roles as wives and mothers. This limited education focused on
delicate conversation, sewing, and managing servants, which many young
women found chafing.

4. Victorian women: the beginnings of formal education

During the Victorian era, women's frustration with poor education increased,
with illiteracy rates dropping from 60% in 1840 to 40% by 1860. The industrial
age led to increased opportunities for men to improve themselves, leading to
the opening of Mechanics' Institutes for women whose parents could afford
them. As demand for women's education increased, girls' equivalent schools
like Cheltenham Ladies' College and Roedean School opened. The 1880
Education Act made education compulsory for all children aged five to ten,
guaranteeing girls an education in law.

5. The early 20th century: votes and degrees

During the Victorian era, schools and universities were established for women,
including the University of London, which awarded degrees to women in 1878.
This progress was part of the campaign to grant women the vote, with some
women advocating for education and others believing in equal rights. In 1918,
women in the UK were granted the vote, but not on equal terms with men.
Oxford became the second-to-last university to allow women to become full
members and take degrees in 1920.

6. 1975 onwards: equal education for boys and girls

In 1975, it was legal to hire men for sex reasons and pay them more for the
same work. The Women's Liberation Movement demanded equal pay,
educational opportunities, and financial independence from men. The Sex
Discrimination Act came into force in 1975, banning discrimination based on
sex or marital status in employment, education, training, harassment, housing,
and provision of goods and services. This change allowed Cambridge University
to prioritize female students and prevent women from being denied jobs based
on their sex.

7. The 21st century: girls overtaking boys

The UK's education landscape has significantly changed since the Sex
Discrimination Act, with institutional bias against women still present. Women
hold only 20% of professorships in UK universities, with the majority of students
still male. However, girls have overtaken boys in university study, with 35%
more likely to attend. In 2014, 5,000 women were admitted to medicine and
dentistry courses in the UK, compared to 3,800 men.