Why read The Bluestockings?

Book cover of The Bluestockings

Book description

In England in the 1700s, a woman who was an intellectual, spoke out, or wrote professionally was considered unnatural. After all, as the wisdom of the era dictated, a clever woman-if there were such a thing-would never make a good wife. But a circle of women called the Bluestockings did…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Bluestockings as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Esther M. Sternberg

Author

I loved the book because it opened my eyes to the fact that the women's movement started long before the mid-20th Century when I came upon it. In fact the book reveals the lives and characters of the many women in the mid-18th century who, despite all odds, banded together, mentored each other, and created intellectual safe havens – salons – where men and women could freely discuss topics as disparate as physics, languages, and literature. It took courage and often money and social status to buck the system where women were thought weak and silly creatures, to instead follow…

From Esther's 3 favorite reads in 2025.