SOURCE: Peterson, Linda H. “Harriet Martineau's Household Education: Revising the Feminine Tradition.” Bucknell Review 34, no. 2 (1990): 183-94.

In the following essay, Peterson suggests that Martineau's Household Education is an important radical work for its dismissal of differences in the educational needs of girls and boys, and for its suggestion that male-dominated public schools are unnecessary and that education is best done at home, giving girls increased opportunity to be instructed and women increased opportunity to instruct.

Beginning in 1846, Harriet Martineau published two series of articles in a short-lived magazine called The People's Journal: one on travel called “Lake and Mountain Holidays,” another on education under such unlikely titles as “The Natural Possessions of Man,” “How to Expect,” and “The Golden Mean.”¹ Though The People's Journal (like many another radical scheme) soon failed, its editor John Saunders encouraged Martineau to finish her series on education, which she did in 1848, bringing...