The works of the first English feminists defending women's education (by example of Bathsua Makin's treatise)
The article considers the historical conditions of the emergence of the early modern feminists in England of the seventeenth century and shows the viewpoint of some western researchers on the beginning of feministic activities in Europe, the origins of which they attribute to the middle ages. Among the prerequisites for the development of feminism in Europe they point out the importance of the so-called “intellectual families”, which became the source of the emergence of educated women and from which most talented writers and poets subsequently appeared. It shows Bathsua Makin’s treatise “An Essay to revive the ancient education of gentlewomen in Religion, Manners, Arts and Tongues” as an example of the ideas of the early modern feminists, demonstrating how the problem of women's education in the seventeenth century was the issue of the day.