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Female Genius
吃瓜网 Law Professor Mary Sarah Bilder chronicles the political feats of the eighteenth-century education activist Eliza Harriot.
Fall 2022
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Modern politicians understand how to play to the media with provocative tweets and photo ops. In her new book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution, 吃瓜网 Law School Founders Professor Mary Sarah Bilder introduces readers to one of the original political influencers, the eighteenth-century education activist Eliza Harriot O鈥機onnor. To draw attention to her mission, Eliza Harriot鈥攁s Bilder refers to O鈥機onnor鈥攌new she had to secure an audience with George Washington. And in doing so, Bilder suggests, she altered the course of history.
In the late 1700s, the well-connected O鈥機onnor鈥攂orn in Portugal of British parents鈥攖oured the United States, advocating for women鈥檚 education as the nation鈥檚 first female public lecturer. Determined to get Washington鈥檚 attention, she scheduled one of her talks for a time when the future president was most likely to be available. And in fact, shortly before the Constitutional Convention, Washington did attend one of her 1787 lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. 鈥淪he realized that, if Washington was the most important person in the United States, and if he could come to her lecture, then all the newspapers would pick it up and comment,鈥� Bilder said. 鈥淪he delayed her lecture for a day so that he could show up. It went viral in the eighteenth-century sense, with over 150 advertisements or commentaries about her in the summer of 1787.鈥�
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Bilder believes Eliza Harriot鈥檚 ideas about gender equality in education and political participation influenced the Constitution鈥檚 gender-neutral language, with its references to 鈥減ersons鈥� or 鈥渃itizens.鈥� It was an exciting, promising time, Bilder said, when American law was very much in flux and the question of women鈥檚 suffrage hadn鈥檛 yet been decided. 鈥淭his is a moment where things were more open鈥攖he kinds of constitutional exclusions that became very clear in the later 1790s aren鈥檛 quite yet in place,鈥� she said. For instance, New Jersey鈥檚 constitution authorized women to vote until the state legislature stripped that right away in 1807. 听
Bilder discovered Eliza Harriot while researching her last book, Madison鈥檚 Hand: Revisiting the Constitutional Convention, which won the Bancroft Prize. In perusing Washington鈥檚 diaries, she spotted references to the ambitious Eliza Harriot, who ran a boarding school for young women in New York that focused on belles lettres, elocution, math, and geography. Washington even called her ideas 鈥渢olerable,鈥� which was true praise for the time. 鈥淚 always love that: It鈥檚 how Mr. Darcy describes Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice,鈥� Bilder said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a complete embrace, but it鈥檚 certainly not rejection. It鈥檚 a kind of openness to the idea that women aren鈥檛 inferior.鈥�
As such, opposing republican motherhood鈥攖he post-Revolutionary notion that American women should be educated only to support male family members鈥攆igures prominently in Eliza Harriot鈥檚 story. One of the idea鈥檚 most vocal critics, she secured a five-day invitation to Washington鈥檚 Mount Vernon estate in 1788 to discuss plans for a young ladies鈥� academy there. 鈥淪he doesn鈥檛 move to the United States thinking, 鈥業鈥檓 a lesser human being,鈥欌�� Bilder said with a laugh. 鈥淪he invited herself to Mount Vernon. She didn鈥檛 even have a carriage, so Washington sent a carriage for her.鈥� Eliza Harriot went on to open female academies throughout the South.
The title Female Genius is a nod to Eliza Harriot鈥檚 ingenuity, which stood out at the time in America, even as female debating societies and political involvement were taking root in Europe. In some ways, Bilder considers Eliza Harriot to be the lesser-known, stateside version of the British activist Mary Wollstonecraft, who authored the landmark feminist work,听 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which argued that women deserve the same fundamental rights, including access to education and political representation, as men.
Female Genius spotlights not only a trailblazer for women鈥檚 rights but also an overlooked era, pre-Constitution, when women had the potential right to vote, and weren鈥檛 merely consigned to domestic duties. Yet, despite this brief moment of hope, women were gradually edged out of politics and education鈥攁nd the trajectory of Eliza Harriot鈥檚 life unfortunately followed suit. After her initial success, she lived an itinerant life due to the debts of her would-be writer husband. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a sort of sad story,鈥� Bilder said. 鈥淓arly nineteenth-century constitutions moved toward explicitly enfranchising white men. Eliza Harriot鈥檚 story tracks that larger story鈥攁nd yet, it also reminds us how inspirational women pushing at these boundaries were.鈥澨�
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