Cross-Channel Motions: The Educational Writings of Mary Hays Versus Those of Pauline de Meulan-Guizot

Abstract

Abstract The current paper seeks to investigate the achievements of two female writers from two European countries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Mary Hays and Pauline de Meulan-Guizot were both highly involved in the issue of education, albeit from separate angles. The British author, Mary Hays, an adept of Godwinian and Helvetian philosophies, emphasized the need for schooling in general and for girls in particular. Most of her writings were dedicated to the cause of female liberation. In France, Pauline de Meulan-Guizot wrote several pedagogical and didactic works, both together with her husband, the liberal politician François Guizot, and independently. Her writings were mainly focused on the moral upbringing of the young. The aim of this study is to compare the different outlooks of the two writers as well as to identify the links between them.

Keywords

• Hays
• de Meulan-Guizot
• education
• female emancipation
• conduct literature