ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the opponents’ arguments on the economic effects of higher education for women. A major contention of opponents to higher education for women was that sexes had different goals in life and should, therefore, be educated differently. Throughout the nineteenth century, issues in dispute over higher education for women were confused because there was no consensus on the purpose of higher education. A pessimistic framework for discussion of women’s economic roles in society was provided by Robert Malthus, David Ricardo and James Mill. Reforms to alleviate plight of women factory workers were backed by working men as well as by middle-class reformers, but for less altruistic reasons: they wanted to reduce the number of women working in the hope that men would be employed in their place. Middle-class beliefs in the purity of women, the need for their protection and the rightful division of labour between sexes were challenged by the pattern of life of the labouring classes.
