Sophie and Emile: A Case Study of Sex Bias in the History of Educational Thought

Abstract

While the sex bias in Rousseau's educational and political philosophy is revealed in this essay, the focus is the bias exhibited by the discipline of the history of educational thought in its treatment of Rousseau's masterpiece, Emile.Jane Roland Martin argues that the accepted interpretation of Rousseau's philosophy of education is fundamentally mistaken and traces its inadequacy to its failure to acknowledge Rousseau's discussion of the education of girls in Emile V. In place of the growth model of education attributed to Rousseau she proposes a production model which does justice to his account of the education of both sexes.