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Religion and Rationality: Quaker Women and Science Education 1790–1850
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2006
Year
Feminist PhilosophyHumanitiesHistory Of ScienceScience StudyScientific LiteracyChildren's LiteratureFeminist ResearchGender StudiesFeminist ScholarshipArtsQuaker WomenMaria HackFeminist SciencePriscilla WakefieldContemporary CultureFeminist TheorySocial SciencesFeminist Inquiry
This article examines the work of two Quaker women, Priscilla Wakefield (1750–1832) and Maria Hack (1777–1844) as popularizers of science and in the context of the development of scientific literacy. Both women were writers who specialized in scientific educational texts for children and young adults. As Quakers their community and culture played a significant part in their understanding of, and approach to, the study of science. Hence this article will consider how and why Quakers encouraged scientific education for their children. It will also consider how Quakers, in their support for science, avoided the theological discord that was beginning to arise between religion and science in other Christian denominations.