Life — September 19, 1889 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "One Result of the Higher Education of Women" This 1890 *Life* magazine cartoon satirizes women's education through domestic role-reversal. The illustration shows a woman reading a "society novel" while her husband stands nearby holding papers, apparently managing household matters. The caption presents their dialogue: he asks what she's reading; she dismissively replies she's "just glancing thro'" a novel to check if it's suitable for him. The satire mocks anxieties about educated women—suggesting that women's higher education made them neglect traditional domestic duties, instead becoming absorbed in literary pursuits while husbands handled household responsibilities. This inverts Victorian gender expectations, using humor to critique both women's education and changing social roles during this period of women's expanding access to universities.