ABSTRACT
The reform of the teaching profession was an indispensable part of the overall reform of women's secondary and higher education. The quality of girls' education could be improved only when better teaching was provided; curricular reform required that teachers attain competence in new disciplines. In addition, the poverty of lady-teachers as a group was sometimes seen as linked in a general way with the domestic or quasi-domestic environment in which they worked and their lack of special skills. Female servants, too, generally wore black, but unlike domestics, lady-teachers tended to wear fine fabrics. Although schoolmistresses doubtless had more time to themselves than did their assistants or private governesses, they too were in an anomalous position as ladies who worked and did not mix easily in society. At the time of the Schools Inquiry Commission, the accomplishments still dominated the curriculum, but discontent with both the quality and the content of girls' education was growing in some quarters.
