Editing Erasmus Darwin (section)

=== Education of women ===
The last two leaves of Darwin's ''A plan for the conduct of female education in boarding schools'' (1797) contain a book list, an apology for the work, and an advert for "Miss Parkers School".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/planforconductof00darwrich|title=A plan for the conduct of female education, in boarding schools, private families, and public seminaries.|last=Darwin|first=Erasmus|date=1798|publisher=Philadelphia: : Printed by John Ormrod, no. 41, Chesnut-Street.|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref>

The school advertised on the last page is the one he set up in [[Ashbourne, Derbyshire]], for his two illegitimate children, Susanna and Mary.

Darwin regretted that a good education had not been generally available to women in Britain in his time, and drew on the ideas of [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Rousseau]], and [[Stéphanie Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin|Genlis]] in organising his thoughts. Addressing the education of middle-class girls, Darwin argued that amorous romance novels were inappropriate and that they should seek simplicity in dress. He contends that young women should be educated in schools, rather than privately at home, and learn appropriate subjects. These subjects include physiognomy, physical exercise, botany, chemistry, mineralogy, and [[natural philosophy|experimental philosophy]]. They should familiarise themselves with arts and manufactures through visits to sites like [[Coalbrookdale]], and Wedgwood's potteries; they should learn how to handle money, and study modern languages. Darwin's educational philosophy took the view that men and women should have different capabilities, skills, interests, and spheres of action, where the woman's education was designed to support and serve male accomplishment and financial reward, and to relieve him of daily responsibility for children and the chores of life.<ref>[[Dictionary of National Biography|DNB]] entry for Erasmus Darwin. Oxford.</ref> In the context of the times, this program may be read as a modernising influence in the sense that the woman was at least to learn about the "man's world", although not be allowed to participate in it. The text was written seven years after [[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]] by [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], which has the central argument that women should be educated in a rational manner to give them the opportunity to contribute to society.

Some women of Darwin's era were receiving more substantial education and participating in the broader world. An example is [[Susanna Wright]], who was raised in Lancashire and became an American colonist associated with the Midlands Enlightenment. It is not known whether Darwin and Wright knew each other, although they definitely knew many people in common. Other women who received substantial education and who participated in the broader world (albeit sometimes anonymously) whom Darwin definitely knew were [[Maria Jacson]] and [[Anna Seward]].