Judith Harford Women in Ireland All Books Female sku-9872231

Judith Harford's The Opening of University Education to Women in Ireland (Hardcover) is listed under All Books and Female (sku-9872231). It examines how university education opened to women in Ireland, placing that history in the social, political and cultural context of nineteenth-century Irish society and alongside international reforms in women's higher education.

The book covers female education at the start of the century, the reform movement, arguments for and against women's higher education, and its effect on women's roles in Irish society. It offers the first comprehensive analysis of the role and significance of women's colleges, which began to emerge in the 1850s as women sought higher education while universities excluded them.

Harford considers the colleges' origins, what they taught and how that education affected women's career prospects. She also documents differences and rivalry between Protestant and Catholic women's colleges, including the role of public competitive examinations. The book closes by examining arguments for education in women-only colleges and for full, equal access to coeducational universities.