Thoughts Upon Female Education (1787)

Thoughts Upon Female Education (1787)
Benjamin Rush
There are several circumstances in the situation, employments, and duties of women in America which require a peculiar mode of education.
I. The early marriages of our women . . . renders it necessary to contract its plan and to confine it chiefly to the more useful branches of literature.
II. The state of property in America renders it necessary for the greatest part of our citizens to employ themselves in different occupations for the advancement of their fortunes. This cannot be done without the assistance of the female members of the community. They must be the stewards and guardians of their husbands' property. That education, therefore, will be most proper for our women which teaches them to discharge the duties of those offices with the most success and reputation.
III. From the numerous avocations to which a professional life exposes gentlemen in America from their families, a principal share of the instruction of children naturally devolves upon the women. It becomes us therefore to prepare them, by a suitable education, for the discharge of this most important duty of mothers.
IV. The equal share that every citizen has in the liberty and the possible share he may have in the government of our country make it necessary that our ladies should be qualified to a certain degree . . . suitable education, to concur in instructing their sons in the principles of liberty and government.
-Benjamin Rush's ideas regarding the education of women best exemplify the concept of

A) the cult of domesticity.
B) feminism.
C) libertarianism.
D) republican motherhood.