The Bluestockings

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2014

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bluestockings. Around the middle of the eighteenth century a small group of intellectual women began to meet regularly to discuss literature and other matters, inviting some of the leading thinkers of the day to take part in informal salons. In an age when women were not expected to be highly educated, the Bluestockings were sometimes regarded with suspicion or even hostility. But prominent members such as Elizabeth Montagu - known as 'the Queen of the Bluestockings', and author of an influential essay about Shakespeare - and the classicist Elizabeth Carter were highly regarded for their scholarship. Their accomplishments led to far greater acceptance of women as the intellectual equal of men, and furthered the cause of female education.

With:

Karen O'Brien Vice-Principal and Professor of English at King's College London

Elizabeth Eger Reader in English Literature at King's College London

Nicole Pohl Reader in English Literature at Oxford Brookes University

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:44.0	Hello in the middle of the 18th century a group of aristocratic women formed an informal
0:49.0	club which met regularly at their homes in London. This group became known as the Blue Stockings, and at their
0:55.1	gatherings they discussed intellectual matters with the leading thinkers of the day.
1:00.0	At a time when women had little access to formal education, the achievements of the blue stockings were considered remarkable.
1:06.0	Leading members such as Elizabeth Montague and Elizabeth Carter were celebrated for their erudition and their success, and their success led to greater acceptance of women as the intellectual equals of men.
1:18.0	But as the 18th century due to a close, the Blue Stocking started to attract suspicion, eventually their name, even became a pejorative term.
1:25.9	With me to discuss the Blue Stocings are, Karen O'Brien, Vice Principal and Professor of English
1:30.6	at King's College London. Elizabeth Eager, reader in English literature, also of King's College London,
	...

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