ABSTRACT
In this citation from Eliot’s influential work, the underlying assumption is that “young ladies” don’t understand political economy because they don’t have anything to do with it: the world of political economy is far removed from the experiential world and daily lives of young, middle-class women in nineteenthcentury Britain. Moreover, as Eliot’s character reveals, the dominant view in nineteenth-century Britain was that “young ladies” were too emotionally inclined to be able to discuss matters of political economy rationally.
