What’s Wrong with the World · Chapter
XIV: Folly and Female Education explained
Chesterton critiques the so-called 'new ideas' about female education, arguing they are merely imitations of male education without any original thought or understanding of sex differences.
What happens
Chesterton critiques the so-called 'new ideas' about female education, arguing they are merely imitations of male education without any original thought or understanding of sex differences. He defends the old ideal of the 'elegant female' as a universal amateur, contrasting it with the modern, specialized woman, whom he sees as rootless and inferior.
Themes in this chapter
Gender Roles and Wisdom
Chesterton argues for distinct female roles centered on amateurism and domesticity, opposing the imitation of male education and specialization.
Specialization vs. Universality
The chapter champions the 'universal amateur' ideal for women, criticizing the modern trend toward specialized, imitative education.
Tradition vs. Progress
Chesterton defends traditional female education (e.g., watercolors, Italian) as having a coherent intellectual design, unlike the 'new' education which he sees as mindless imitation.
Characters to notice
- Jane Austen
Praised as stronger, sharper, and shrewder than Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, and able to 'coolly and sensibly describe a man.'
- Unknown
The narrator who is asked about new ideas on female education and who defends the old ideal.
Key passages
“There is not, there never has been, even the vestige of a new idea. All the educational reformers did was to ask what was being done to boys and then go and do it to girls; just as they asked what was being taught to young squires and then taught it to young chimney sweeps.”
Chesterton asserts that so-called new ideas in female education are merely copying male education without any original thought.
This encapsulates his central critique of the lack of creativity in educational reform for women.
“I solidly prefer it to the new female education, for this reason, that I can see in it an intellectual design, while there is none in the other.”
He prefers the old model of female education because it had a coherent purpose, unlike the modern one.
Highlights his defense of tradition based on intentional design.
“Somebody must renounce all specialist conquests, that she may conquer all the conquerors. That she may be a queen of life, she must not be a private soldier in it.”
A woman must remain a generalist and amateur to rule over life, rather than becoming a specialized soldier in a narrow field.
Key statement of the 'universal amateur' ideal for women.