As a profession, education also began to attract women. Bathsua Makin (1608 - 1675?) wrote to advertise her school as well as to argue for female education. Hannah Woolley (1627 - 1670) began teaching school at fifteen and wrote a form of training manual for women in the domestic arts at a time when jobs were disappearing. After the Civil War, women still agitated to be preachers.

      In general, women were losing ground in their efforts to retain space and their traditional functions in the workforce. The enclosure of cultivable and common land also affected working women although it was a gradual process. Some of the dispossessed stayed in the countryside and eked out a living while others moved to the cities and found themselves frequently excluded from the skilled jobs that urban reconstruction and capital investment were opening up. During this time, the old family structure based on kin gave way more and more to a family unit based on the married couple. Changing work patterns made many women look to marriage for economic survival, in part because a woman's wages tended to be two-thirds those of a man." pages 2 - 3

      That same decade, Sarah Fyge (later Field Egerton, 1669/72 - 1722/23), a fourteen-year-old girl incensed by Robert Gould’s misogynous tract entitled. . . The Pride, Lust, and Inconstancy, etc. of Woman. . . , penned the only major feminist polemic of the 1680s, probably the work of the youngest feminist on record. For this she was banished from her parents’ home.” p. 14

      Writers who supported the French Revolution, some from dissenting backgrounds and frequently in search of economic independence, fused feminist ideas with enlightenment and with radical tenets about human rights. Overt agitators for women’s rights in tracts, novels, and poems, most of them led lives of sexual unorthodoxy. They remained single. Proclaimed the right to and practiced sexual autonomy, lived with female friends; or separated from husbands, cohabited with married men, and bore children “out of wedlock.” The correlation between unorthodox socio-sexual behavior, economic independence, and progressive ideas was at its most cogent and illustrative in the post-1788 revolutionary decade.” p. 26 - 27

Reactive polemic: respond to a misogynist attack on women
Sustained polemic: polemic more than a paragraph in a letter or even an entire letter, an occasional poem, an introductory paragraph
Intermittent polemic: opposite of a sustained polemic
Personal polemic: writing about love of another woman, women in general, or a community of women

Sarah Fyge Field Egerton (1669 / 72 - 1722 / 23) (pp 156- 160)

The Female Advocate, or
An Answer to a Late Satry
Against the Pride, Lust, and
Inconstancy, &c. of Woman (1683)

Blasphemous Wretch! How canst thou think or say
Some curst or Banisht Fiend Usurpt the Sway
When Eve was Form’d? For then’s deny’d by you
God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience too:
Without which Attributes he could not be
The greatest and supreamest Deity:
Nor can Heav’n sleep, tho’ it may mourn to see
Degen’rate Man speak such vile Balsphemy.

When from dark Chaos Heav’n the World did make,
And all was Glorious it did undertake;
Then were in Eedn’s Garden freely plac’d
Each thin that’s pleasant to the Sight or Taste,
‘T was fill’d with Beasts & Birds, Trees hung with Fruit,
That might with Man’s Coelestial Nature suit:
The World being made thus spacious and comleat,
Then Man was form’d, who seemed nobly Great.
When Heav’n survey’d the Works that it had done,
Saw Male and Female, but found Man alone,
A barren Sex, and insignificant,
then Heav’n made Woman to supply the want,
And to make perfect what before was scant:
Surely then she a Noble Creature is,
Whom Heav’n thus made to consummate all Bliss.
Tho’ Man had Being first, yet methinks She
In Nature should have the Supremacy;
For Man was form’d out of dull senceless Earth,
But Woman had a much more Noble Birth:
For when the Dust was purif’d by heaven,
Made into Man, and Life unto it given,
Then the Almighty and All-wise God said,
That Woman of the Species should be made;
Which was no sooner said, but it was done,
‘Cause ‘twas not fit for Man to be alone.

Thus have I prov’d Woman’s Creation good,
And not inferior, when right understood,
To that of Man’s; for both one Maker had,
Which made all good; the how could Eve be bad?
But then you’l say, tho’ she at first was pure,
Yet in that State she did not long endure.
‘Tis true; but yet her Fall examine right;
We find most Men have banish’d Truth for spight:
Nor is she quite so guilty as some make,
For Adam most did of the guilt partake;
While he from God’s own mouth had the Command,
But Woman had it at the second hand:
The Devil’s strength weak Woman might deceive,
And Adam only tempted was by Eve:
She hd the strongest Tempter, and least Charge;
Man’s knowing most, doth make his Sin more large.
But tho’ that Woman Wam to Sin did lead,
Yet since her Seed hath bruis’d the Serpent’s Head:
Why should she thus be made a publick scorn,
Of whom the Great Almighty God was born?
Surely to speak one slighting word, must be
A kind of murmuring Impiety:
But yet their greatest Haters still prove too much;
And from the Proverb they are not exempt,
Too much Familiarity has bred Contempt.
And as in Adam all Mankind did die,
They make all Base for one’s Immodesty;
Nay, make the Name a kind of Magick Spell,
As if ‘twould conjure married Men to Hell.

Woman! By Heaven, the very Name’s a Charm,
And will my Verse against all Criticks arm.
The Muses or Apollo doth inspire
Heroick Poets; but yours is a Fire
Pluto from Hell did send by Incubus,
Because we make their Hell less populous,
Or else you ne’er had Damn’d the Females thus:
But if so universally they are
Dispos’d to Mischied, what need you declare
Peculiar Faults? When all the World might see
With each approaching Morn a Prodigy.
Man Curse bad Woman! I could here as well
The black infernal Devils Curse their Hell:
When there had bin no such damn’d Place we know,
If they themselves had not first made it so.
In Lust perhaps you others have excell’d,
And made all Whores that possibly would yield;
And courted all the Females in your wat,
Then did design at last to make a Prey
Of some pure Virgins; or what’s almost worse,
Make some chaste Wives to merit a Divorce:
But ‘cause they hated your insatiate Mind,
Therefore you call what’s Vertuous, Unkind;
And Disappointments did you Soul perplex,
So in meer spight you curse the Female Sex.
I would not judge you thus, only I find
You would adul’rate all Womankind,
Not only with your Pen; you higher soar,
You’d exclude Marriage, make the World a Whore.
But if all Men should of your honour be,
And should rob Hymen of his Deity,
They soon would find the Inconveniency.
Then hostile Spirits would be forc’d to Peace,
Because the World so slowly would encrease.
They would be glad to keep their Men at home,
And ev’ry King want more t’attend his Throne:
Nay, should an English Prince resolve that he
Would keep the number of’s Nobility;
And this dull Custom some few years maintain’d,
There would be none less than a Peer ith’ Land;
And I do fancy ‘twould be pretty sport,
To see a Kingdom cram’d into a Court.
Sure a strange world, when one shall nothing see,
Unless a Bawdy-house or Nunnery.
For should this Act e’er pass, Woman would fly
Unto dark Caves to save her Chastity.
She only in a Marriage-Bed delights,
The very Name of Whore her Soul affrights:
And when that Sacred Ceremony’s gone,
Woman I’m sure will chuse to live alone.

Ther’s none can number all those vertuous Dames
Which chose cold death before their Lovers flames.
The chaste Lucretia, whom proud Tarquin lov’d,
Her self she flew; her Chastity she prov’d.
But I’ve gone further than I need have done,
Since we have got Examples nearer home:
Witness those Saxon Ladies who did fear
The loss of Honour when the Danes were here;
And cut their Lips and Noses, that they might
Not pleasing seem, or give the Danes delight:
Thus having done what they could justly do,
At last they fell their sacrifices too.
I could say more, but History will tell
Many Examples that do these excel.

In Constancy they often men excel,
That steady Vertue in their Souls do dwell;
She’s not so fickle and frail as Men pretend,
But can keep constant to a faithful Friend;
And tho’ Man’s always alt’ring his mind,
He says, Inconstancy’s in Womankind;
And would perswade us that we engross all
That’s either fickle, vain or whimsical.
Man’s fancy’d Truth small Vertue doth express;
Our’s is Constancy, their’s is Stubborness.
In faithful Love our Sex do them out-shine,
And is more constant than the Masculine:
For where is there that Husband that e’ver dy’d,
Or ever suffer’d with his loving bride?
But num’rous trains of chast Wives oft expire
With their dear Husbands, wrapt in flaming fire
We’d to the same if Custom did require.
But this is done by Indian Women, who
Do make their Constancy immortal too,
As is their Fame; while happy India yields
More glorious Pheonix that th’ Arabian fields.
The German Women Constancy did show
When Wensberg was Besieg’d, begg’d they might go
Out of the City, with no bigger Packs
Than each of them could carry on their Backs.
The wond’ring world expected they’d have gone
Laded with Treasures from their Native home;
But crossing expectation, each did take
her Husband, as her burden, on her back;
so sav’d him from intended Death, and she
At once gave him both Life and Liberty.
How many loving Wives have often dy’d
Thro’ extreme Grief by their cold Husbands side?
If this ben’t Constancy, why then the Sun
Or Earth do not a constant progress run.

. . . 

But hold, I think I should be silent now,
Because a Woman’s Soul you do allow.
But had we none, you’d say we had, else you
Could never Damn us at the rate you do.
What, dost thou think has a priv’ledge given,
that those whom thous dost bless, shall mount to heaven?
And those thou cursest, unto hell must go?
And so dost think to fill th’ Abyss below
Quite full of Females, hoping there may be
No room for Souls as big with Vice as thee.
But if that thou wich such vain hopes should’st die,
I’th’ fluid Air thou must not think to fly;
Or enter into Heav’n, thy weight of sin
Would crush the Damn’d, and so thou’dst enter in.

Mary Lee, Lady Chudleigh 1656-1710 (pp 213-238)

Ladies,

      The Love of Truth, the tender Regard I have for your Honor, joyn'd with a just Indignation to see you so unworthily us'd, makes me assume the Confidence of imploying my Pen in your Service, The Knowledge I had of my Inability for so great a Task, made me for a while stifle my Resentments, as thinking it much better privately to lament the Injuries that were done you, than expose you by a weak Defence to the fresh Insults of a Person, who has not yet learnt to distinguish between Railing and Instruction, and who is so vain as to fancy, that the Dignity of his Function will render everything he thinks fit to say becoming: But when I found that some Men were so far from finding fault with his Sermon, that they rather defended it, and espress'd an ill-natur'd sort of Joy to see you ridicul'd, and that those few among 'em who were Pretenders to more Generosity and good Humour, were yet too proud, too much devoted to their Interest, and too indulgent to their Pleasures, to give themselves the Trouble of saying any thing in your Vindication, I had not the Patience to be Silent any longer. Besides it vex'd me to think he should have the Satisfaction of believing, that what by the Malice of some, the Neutrality of others, and the Sacredness of his Character, he was secur'd from all Opposition, and might triumph over you at his Pleasure: it also troubl'd me to find that but one of our own Sex had the Courage to enter the Lists with him [Eugenia]."

      Chudleigh says of Sir John Brute in her Preface to the Reader

". . . those Expressions which I thought would be indecent in the Mouth of a Reverend Divine, are spoken by Sir John Brute, who has ll the extraordinary Qualifications of an accomplished Husband; and to render his Character compleat, I have given him the Religion of a Wit, and the good Humour of a Critick. I am afraid the Clergy will accuse me of Atheism for making Sir John speak so irreverently of them; but before they condemn me, I beg 'em to be so just as to consider, that I do not speak my own thoughts, but what one might rationally suppose a man of his Character will say on such Occasions. . ." In a word, Sir John hates women.

      Sir William is single but bemoans his unmarried state for he cherishes women. In a back-handed way, he defends women.

      The Parson stresses that he has tried to teach women complete submission to her husband.

      Melissa defends her sex, defends women's intellect, advocates for better education and training for women, and disparages men for blaming women for being what they make women into. She blames male insecurity for attacks on women's intellect.

Melissa: I've still rever'd your Order [she is responding to a Parson] as Divine;
And when I see unblemish'd Virtue shine,
When solid Learning, and substantial Sense,
Are joyn'd with unaffected Eloquence;
When Lives and Doctrices of a Piece are made,
And holy Truths with humble Zeal convey'd;
When free from Passion, Bigottry, and Pride,
Not sway'd by Int'rest, nor to Parties ty'd,
Contemning Riches, and abhorring strife,
And shunning all the noisy Pomps of Life,
You live the aweful Wonders of your time,
Without the least Suspicion of a Crime:
I shall with Joy the highest Deference pay,
and heedfully attend to all you say.
From such, Reproofs shall always welcome prove,
As being th' Effects of Piety and Love.
But those from me can challenge no Respect,
Who on us all without just Cause reflect:
Who without Mercy all the Sex decry,
And into open Defamations fly:
Who think us Creatures for Derision made,
And the Creator with his Works upbraid:
What he call'd good, they proudly think not so,
And with their Malice, their Prophaneness show.
'Tis hard we shou'd be by the Men despis'd,
Yet kept from knowing what wou'd make us priz'd:
Debarr'd from Knowledge, banish'd from the Schools,
And with the utmost Industry bred Fools.
Laugh'd out of Reason, jested out of Sense,
And nothing left but Native Innocence:
Then told we are incapable of Wit,
And only for the meanest Drudgeries fit:
Made Slaves to serve their Luxury and Pride,
And with innumerable Hardships try'd,
'Till Pitying Heav'n release us from our Pain,
Kind Heav'n to whom alone we dare complain.
Th' ill-natur'd World will no Compassion show;
Such as are wretched, it wou'd still have so:
It gratifies its Envy and its Spight;
The most in others Miseries take Delight.
While we are present they some Pity spare,
And feast us on a thin Repast of Air:
Look Grave and Sigh, when we our Wrongs relate,
An in a Compliment accuse our Fate:
Blame those to whom we our Misfortunes owe,
And all the Signs of real Friendship show.
But when we're absent, we their Sport are made,
They fan the Flame, and our Oppressors aid;
Joyn with the Stronger, the Victorious Side,
And all our Suff'ring, all our griefs deride.
Those gen'rous few, whom kinder Thoughts inspire,
And who the Happiness of all desire;
Who wish we were from barb'rous Usage free,
Exempt from Toils, and shameful Slavery,
Yet let us, unreprov'd, mis. spend our Hours,
And to mean Purposes employ our nobler Pow'rs.
They think, if we our Thoughts can but express,
And know but how to Work, to Dance and Dress,
It is enough, as much as we shou'd mind,
As if we were for nothing else design'd,
But made, like Puppets, to divert Mankind.
O that my Sex wou'd all such Toys despise;
And only study to be Good, and Wise;
Inspect themselves, and every Blemish find,
Search all the close Recesses of the Mind,
And leave no vice, no ruling Passion there,
Nothing to raise a Blush, or cause a Fear:
Their Memories with solid Notions fill,
And let their Reason dictate to their Will,
Instead of Novels, Histories peruse,
And for their Guides the wiser Ancients chuse,
Thro' all the Labyrinths of Learning go,
And grow more humble, as they more do know.
By doing this, they will Respect procure,
Silence the Men, and lasting Fame secure;
And to themselves the best Companions prove,
And neither fear their Malice, nor desire their Love.

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623 - 1673)

To the Two Most Famous Universities of England

Most Famously Learned,

      I here present to you this philosophical work, not that I can hope wise school-men and industrious laborious students should value it for any worth, but to receive it without scorn, for the good encouragement of our sex, lest in time we should grow irrational as idiots, by the dejectedness of our spirits, through the careless neglects and despisements of the masculine sex to the female, thinking it impossible we should have either learning or understanding, wit or judgement, as if we had not rational souls as well as men, and we out of a custom of dejectedness think so too, which makes us quit all industry towards profitable knowledge, being employed only in low and petty employments, which take away not only our Abilities towards arts, but higher capacities in speculations, so as we are become like worms, that only live in the dull earth of ignorance, winding our selves sometimes out by the help of some refreshing rain of good education, which seldom is given us, for we are kept like birds in cages, to hop up and down in our houses, not suffered to fly abroad, to see the several changes of fortune, and the various humors, ordained and created by nature, and wanting the experience of nature, we must needs want the understanding and knowledge, and so consequently prudence, and invention of men; thus by an opinion, which I hope is but an erroneous one in men, we are shut out of all power and authority, by reason we are never employed either in civil or martial affairs, our counsels are despised, and laughed at, the best of our actions are trodden down with scorn, by the over-weening conceit, men have of themselves, and through a despisement of us.

      But I considering with my self, that if a right judgement and a true understanding, and a respectful civility live any where, it must be in learned universities, where nature is best known, where truth is oftenest found, where civility is most practiced, and if I find not a resentment here, I am very confident I shall find it no where, neither shall I think I deserve it, if you approve not of me; but if I deserve not praise, I am sure to receive so much courtship from your sage society, as to bury me in silence, that thus I may have a quiet grave, since not worthy a famous memory, for to lie entombed under the dust of an university will be honor enough for me, and more than if I were worshipped by the vulgar as a deity. Wherefore, if your wisdoms cannot give me the bays, let your charity strew me with cypress; and who knows, but, after my honorable burial, I may have a glorious resurrection in following ages, since time brings strange and unusual things to pass, I mean unusual to men, though not in nature; and I hope this action of mine is not unnatural, though unusual for a woman to present a book to the university, nor impudent, for it is honest, although it seem vain-glorious; but if it be, I am to be pardoned, since there is little difference between man and beast, but what ambition and glory makes.

Mary Collier 1689/90 - after 1759 (pp 255-265)

      In an angry response to Stephen Duck's paean to male labors, The Thresher's Labour (1736), Mary Collier, a member herself of the laboring class (a washerwoman), wrote The Woman's Labour (1739). In the first work of its kind, Collier spoke up for the common woman and, as you will see, railed against the women's double-shift during the work day. In this moving poem, Collier describes the seasonal drudgery common to working-class women trying to earn an honest living.

	When Harvest comes, into the Field we go,
And help to reap the Wheat as well as you;
Or else we go the Ears of Corn to glean;
No Labour scorning, be it e'er so mean;
But in the Work we freely bear a Part,
And what we can, perform with all our Heart.
To get a Living we so willing are,
Our tender Babes unto the Field we bear,
And wrap them in our Cloaths to keep them warm,
While round about we gather up the Corn;
and often unto them our Course do bend,
To keep them save, that nothing them offend:
Our Children that are able bear a share,
In gleaning Corn, such is our frugal Care.
When Night comes on, unto our Home we go,
Our Corn we carry, and our Infant too;
Weary indeed! but 'tis not worth our while
Once to complain, or rest at ev'ry Sitle;
We must make haste, for when we home are come,
We find again our Work has just begun;
So many Things for our Attendance call,
Had we ten hands, we could employ them all.
Our Children put to Bed, with greatest Care
We all Things for your coming home prepare:
You sup, and go to Bed without Delay,
And rest yourselves till the ensuing Day;
While we, alas! but little Sleep can have
Because our froward Children cry and rave;
Yet, without fail, soon as Day-light doth spring,
We in the Field again our work begin,
and there, with all our Strength, our Toil renew,
Till titan's golden Rays have dry'd the Dew;
Then home we go unto our Children dear,
Dress, feed, and bring them to the Field with Care.
Were this your Case, you justly might complain
That Day and Night you are secure from Pain;
Those mighty Troubles which perplex your Mind,
(thistles before, and Females come behind)
Would vanish soon, encumber'd thus with Care.
What you would have of us we do not know:
We oft take up the Corn that you do mow;
We cut the Peas, and always ready are
In every Work to take our proper Share;
And from the time that Harvest doth begin,
Until the Corn be cut and carry'd in,
Our Toil and Labour's daily so extreme,
That we have hardly ever Time to Dream.

Mary Anne Radcliffe 1746? - after 1810

      Forced to find gainful employment, a humiliating situation for which she was not prepared, Radcliffe eventually found a position as governess to a Scottish aristocratic family, her youngest daughter was sent out to learn dressmaking, and her husband took a position as steward. Mary Ann and her husband would never again live together again for any length of time.

      Moved by personal experiences, including a nervous collapse, Radcliffe wrote poetry where she described her experiences, loneliness and depression. Motivated by the plight of women around her, as well as, by her own financial needs, Radcliffe wrote her best known work, The Female Advocate: or, an attempt to recover the rights of woman from male usurpation (written in 1792, published in 1799), a ground-breaking analysis of women’s oppression. Linking women’s oppression with women’s limited economic horizons, Radcliffe railed against the men taking jobs in traditionally female occupations and observed that prostitution is often the only viable economic alternative women have to earn enough money to keep alive, a sharp break with the traditional belief that prostitution resulted only from women’s moral failings.

      “Let us then commence with a gentleman of small, independent fortune; for, as it is the general maxi through life, that every one should endeavor to outdo his neighbor, the gentleman also must keep up appearances for the benefit of his family (as he is pleased to term it); and, in the present day, where do we see the father or mother of a family, with an independent fortune, be it ever so small, who would not be shocked at the bare idea of placing their daughter in the world in such situations as would enable them to rise, through their own industry and merit, or fit them for becoming wives to some honest and industrious tradesman? - No: that would be a degradation which must not take place. It is the etiquette of the times for the daughters to be bred fine ladies, although it be without a fortune, either dependent or independent, to support it. As for trade, that is out of the question. The sons, indeed, are differently provided: the eldest, in course, inherits the paternal estates, and the younger ones are placed in the church, the army, the navy, or at the bar; and others, again, are genteelly situated in the mercantile world: the whole of which are fit professions for a gentleman, and by which, if they have merit and success, they may acquire a competency.

      But for the female part of the family, what appears in their favour? What prospects have they in live? - The parents die, and leave them, without a provision, a burden upon their connections; which forms the first step to deprive them of friends as well as subsistence. A miserable inheritance, to be their best and only portion! What can be said in behalf of such parents? Can their easy compliance with the fashion of the times form any apology for such mistaken conduct? - This surely cannot be called true parental affection, to entail upon these helpless young creatures such a succession of misery as must eventually ensue. . .

      . . . What was it brought ruin upon the first distressed female, who was admitted into the Magdalen charity; and what but a miracle led her to taste comfort?

      What numbers of helpless and destitute young women there are, who, seeing themselves neglected and despised by their connections, notwithstanding all the refined and delicate ideas which their education and mode of bringing up have possessed them with, would gladly endeavour, through necessity, to make up the deficiency of their parent’s neglect, by putting themselves forward in the world, in order to obtain a support. But, alas! To their sorrow, they quickly see it is not in their power; for, under their present circumstances, “the world is not their friend, nor the world’s laws;” and what was not effected by their parents, cannot possibly be obtained by an inexperienced young woman.

      . . . How far the wife was intended to be the slave to her husband, I know not; but certain we are, she was designed to be his friend, his companion, and united part; or, according to the gentleman’s phrase, his better part; and yet how often do we see her sinking under the burden of a household load, whilst the unfeeling husband is lavishing away the substance which ought to be the comfort and support of a family? Yet such unnatural beings there are, who, by giving way to some unlawful passion, can, without scruple or remorse, trample under foot all laws, divine and human, and with impunity bring wretchedness upon those he is bound to support: not withstanding St. Paul tells us, “if any one provide not for his own, and especially those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

      Let us but look at the many unhappy females, who come to ruin through mercenary marriages. How many are the instances of young women, who have been brought up in affluence, and reared with all the tender care and attention, which are in the power of maternal affection to bestow; yet, perhaps, through her youthful follies and credulity, she is led away by the artifice and false pretensions of those mercenary men, on whom she cheerfully bestows her patrimony, whether acquired by inheritance, r the smiles of fortune upon the honest industry of her deceased parents, avails not, for her expected happiness is vanished in empty air, and she is quickly exposed to all the ills of fate.

“O thoughtless mortals! Ever blind to fate,
“Too soon dejected, and too soon elate.
“Sudden their honours shall be snatch’d away,
“And doom’d for ever this victorious day.

                                                Pope

      But the justice of retribution taking place, shall we not see these poor, helpless, and forlorn women set on a level with their fellow creatures, and not be under the shocking and cruel necessity of starving in a land of plenty? And when the face of sorrow is enlivened with the smile of happiness and content, and the weary tradesman can lye down in peace, without fear or danger of being annoyed by the lawless plundered; when all are united in the bands of mutual benefit and preservation, and the memory of former woes is lost in the blessings of a future age; it is then we may reasonably expect, that less than half the immense sums which are now required, will be sufficient to encourage honest industry.

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