Seen in a Palmerston North cafe. (Via Jennifer Natoli @Jenoli42)
Women ... you'd be mad to educate yourselves
The Athenian Mercury, a British periodical of the 1690s, is where the modern advice column began but, unlike the contemporary questions, which are usually of a personal nature, the early queries dealt with bigger philosophical propositions like this:
Q: Is it proper for women to be learned?
A: All grant that they may have some learning, but the question is of what sort, and to what degree? Some indeed think they have learned enough if they can distinguish between their husband's breeches and another man's. Others think they may pardonably enough read, but by no means be trifled with writing. Others again, that they ought neither to write nor read. A degree yet higher are those who would have them read plays, novels and romances, with perhaps a little history, but by all means terminating their studies there, and not letting them meddle with philosophy ... because it takes them off from their domestic affairs and because it generally fills them of themselves ... 'tis a weakness common to our own sex as well as theirs. We see no reason why women should not be learned now. For if we have seen one lady gone mad with learning ... there are a hundred men could be named, whom the same cause has rendered fit for Bedlam.
(Source: The Atlantic)
