Duties of Women 1797

Gisborne, Thomas. An enquiry into the duties of the female sex. Garland Publishing. New York: 1974

Written in 1797 by Thomas Gisborne with a new introduction written by Gina Luria. Gisborne was known for writing a book earlier in 1794 entitled, “enquiry into the duties of men in the higher and middle classes of society”. This book is a companion to that study outlining the duties of women at that time. The book covers many topics having to do with women of the time. A list of the Chapter titles are:
1) General grounds of the importance of the female character briefly stated
2) On the peculiar features by which the character of the female mind is naturally discriminated from that of the other sex
3) On female education
4) Of the mode of introducing young women into general society
5) On female conversation and epistolary correspondence
6) Remarks on propensity to imitation- on dress
7) On amusements in general – masquerades- the efficacy of individual example considered
8) Theatrical entertainment musical entertainments, Sunday concerts, dancing, gaming and cards – on excess in the pursuit of amusements
9) On the employment of time
10) Considerations antecedent to marriage
11) On the duties of matrimonial life
12) Duties of matrimonial life continued, with a view to the different situations and circumstances of different individuals
13) On parental duties
14) Further remarks on the duties belonging to the middle period of life
15) On the duties of the decline of life
The text does have an odd habit of replacing the s’s with f’s so it is a little hard to read but it shows insight into the time. Many of the ideas are related back to the bible. It also has some books it references for further reading from the time period.