Bluestockings...

 

What was a bluestocking?... It was originally a group of intellectual women who met regularly to discuss various topics. Eventually, the term came to stand for any educated woman, thought to be something of a freakish anomaly, in a time when most women were not educated beyond reading, writing and simple math, --- if that. Women were expected to concentrate more on practical skills needed to be wives and mothers, --- cooking, sewing, managing a home, childcare and being pleasing to their husbands. A bluestocking was often thought to be a spinster, --- an unmarried, even an unattractive, woman, perhaps, a teacher, a governess, an artist, or a writer.