Enyart--Of Queen's Garden Close Reading


In John Ruskin's, Of Queen's Garden, he describes his view of the equal education of men and women. I had to read sections of this passage more than once, because it was quite confusing at first. During the time the text was written, women were still seen as housewives. Their main purpose was to serve their families, and not take part in outside affairs. However, the more I read, the more that I saw the positive point of view that Ruskin had on women, as opposed to all the other books we have read so far. He focuses his attention on the importance of equality between men and women. Believing that if a woman is educated, then she is up to par with her male counterparts. However, where does this leave uneducated women? This portion of the text, seemed contradicting to his overarching theme of women being equal to men. It led me to believe that women can only compete when they are educated, but if they aren't, then they return to their inferior origin.

Despite this flaw in Ruskin's text, it's still refreshing to read his view on women's rights. He made a point to recognize the importance of providing education for not only men, but women as well. His logic, leads to the betterment of society through equal opportunities for both genders, essentially benefitting life as a whole for everyone.

Comments

  1. Paige ShrevesOctober 29, 2017 at 7:52 PM

    I agree with this post. Although this post has its negative views of women, it remains very innovative for its time. At this time, only wealthy women could afford to be educated. In the very early 1900’s, the idea that all women should be educated was very taboo. I also liked that he mentioned education for all leads to success. I agree with this statement to a certain extent but at this time education was very expensive so he does still have some biases to work through. Overall, I found his stance on equal opportunity for both genders to be refreshing to hear from this time period.

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