What relationship does the date of this talk bear to the establishment of women’s colleges in Britain?
Who do you think was Davies’ audience, and in what specific ways does she attempt to appeal to them?
How does Davies lay out her argument? What objections does she (pretend to) find reasonable, and how does she answer each?
What alternate models for educating women does she reject, and why? Are her arguments for each convincing?
How does she respond to the objection that women should not spend their lives in reading and other academic pursuits? To the objection that the rigors of education will harm women?
How does she respond to the objection that future mothers don’t need more than a general knowledge of facts?
To what sector of society does she appeal in her remarks on servants and on “the hall and the manse”? Would her audience likely have entirely agreed?
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