Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution

by Mary Sarah Bilder

"A biography of Eliza Harriot Barons O'Connor, an educator whose 1787 Philadelphia public lecture attended by George Washington might have inspired the gender-neutral language of the Constitution. Explores women's public roles and political power following the American Revolution through the early nineteenth century, tracing the story of white and Black women's struggles for education and suffrage at a transformative moment"--

Genres: History, Womens, Nonfiction

360 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2022

About the author

Mary Sarah Bilder teaches at Boston College Law School in the areas of property, trusts and estates, and American legal and constitutional history.

Reviews

[Aristides Hadjipanteli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated this book and Mary Sarah Bilder’s effort to illuminate hidden stories of America’s founding, especially those relating to women who simply were not given equal attention as history was recorded over time. However, as I read this book it appeared that Bilder was over speculating certain points with regards to Eliza Harriot’s impact and influence. For example, an exceptional description and account would be given only to end with a statement to the effect of this “may” have been due to Harriot or a result of her actions. The connections to Harriot were not always clear. Bilder does a good job of setting the tone for the time period by discussing the advancement of women’s rights and education, both in the States and abroad, but at a certain point these tangential stories felt like filler and overshadowed Harriot’s story.

[Jason S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting work that uses the biographical scraps available of women's education advocate Eliza Harriot as a way to tell the story of the push to educate women in the early days of the USA. Many items in the text are speculative given the nature of the evidence available about her life, but an impressive work of history that sheds light on efforts for women's rights at the turn of the nineteenth century.