The Marquise du Chatelet on Women's Education

The Marquise du Chatelet, circa 1735.

"I feel the full weight of the prejudice which so universally excludes us from the sciences; it is one of the contradictions in life that has always amazed me, seeing that the law allows us to determine the fate of great nations, but that there is no place we are trained to think. Let the reader ponder why, at no time in the course of so many centuries, a good tragedy, a good poem, a respected tale, a fine painting, a good book on physics has ever been produced by women. Why these creatures who's whose understanding appears in every way similar to that of men, seem to be stopped by some irresistible force, this side of barrier. Let the people give a reason, but until they do, women will have reason to protest against their education.

If I were a king, I would redress and abuse which cuts back, as it were, one half of human kind. I would have women participate in all human rights, specially those of the mind. The new education would greatly benefit the human race. Women would be worth more and men would gain something new to emulate. I am convinced that either many women are unaware of their talents by reason of the fault in their education or that they bury them on account of prejudice for want of intellectual courage. My own experience confirms this. Chance made me acquainted with men of letters who extended the hand of friendship to me. I then began to believe that o was being with a mind."