Catharine Macaulay

Portrait by Robert Edge Pine

Catharine Macaulay, née Sawbridge (later Catharine Graham)

*March 23, 1731 (Olantigh, England)
†June 22, 1791 (Binfield, England)

Spouse: George Macaulay

Macaulay was an English philosopher born near Canterbury in 1731. In 1760 she married the Scottish physician George Macaulay, with whom she had a daughter. After her husband’s death, she married the 26 years younger William Graham.
In her Letters on Education she fought for equality of women and criticized contemporary theories of gender difference. Macaulay argued against Rousseau’s complementarity theory, according to which the subordination of women results from the biologically based difference between men and women. She attributed the intellectual inferiority of most women of her time to their limited position in society and called for consistent coeducation. Accordingly, men and women should be taught the same subjects equally. In addition, she opposed slavery and contempt for humanity and fight for a more democratic state constitution.

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