Underhanded Education - Eavesdropping and Impersonation

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education.” - Martin Luther King

Education is an inherent element of revolution. For real change to be made first there has to be an appreciation of contemporary issues and usually, that understanding comes from education. Moreover, without an education doors are shut in your face, and there are fewer opportunities for those who are illiterate, those who cannot do maths or don’t know history. And across history, who have these people been… I’m assuming the answer is obviously women, especially women of colour, women with disabilities, and women of a low social class. But obviously, women have across time periods received an education even when initially refused, many turning to underhanded methods to achieve this.

An early example of this is Pamphile of Epidaurus. She lived in Greece during the reign of Emperor Nero and managed to write an astounding thirty-three rolls of papyrus of historical commentaries, conveniently named ‘The Historical Commentaries’. It is especially astounding as she is the ONLY female Ancient Greek Historian and massively influenced the newly emerging genre of ‘miscellaneous history’. Furthermore, I mainly think she’s interesting as she herself stated she essentially gathered all of her information by eavesdropping on her husband and any visitors that they may have had. This is arguably the most interesting way to gather any form of information especially if that then constitutes THIRTY-THREE roles of papyrus!

Her writing was reviewed by bishop Photios I of Constantinople (810-893 CE) who described it as “(A combination of material that) she thought worthy of note and preservation, not dividing up each piece along the lines of its original design, but writing up each one at random, as she came across it. This was not, as she says, because she found it difficult to divide the material according to genre, but because she considered a mixture, an embroidery, more delightful and more enjoyable than material of only one genre.” Thus because the majority of her work is lost I like to imagine it almost like a diary in which she recorded anything she learnt that was of interest, an almost informal but joyful task that she undertook. She herself described her work as “ποικίλη” meaning embroidery, and thus her work takes the form of a colourful and rich tapestry woven from her experiences. Furthermore, embroidery was an inherently feminine task and therefore she gains even further autonomy over her work as she defines it as feminine and in turn uniquely her own. However of course, in classic “Mathilda Effect” (another topic I intend to write about) fashion in the Souda (essentially a massive 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia) Pamphile’s work is attributed to either her father or husband, likely due to the fact that she herself said she initially gathered stories from her husband.

Even more interesting than the ‘Historical Commentaries’ Pamphile also wrote two additional works ‘On Controversies’ and ‘On Sexual Pleasure’ which I am slightly obsessed with. ‘On Sexual Pleasure’ has been defined by a sort of “sex manual” which is arguably shocking to have been written by a woman, however in Ancient Greek societies, sex was percieved to be an activity that was an “area of particular female expertise” (Spencer, 2021). Therefore, I would further argue that Pamphile’s work is defined by an association with what was considered feminine. Especially, the source of her information being eavesdropping on her own husband. Therefore, I am defining this as an underhanded way of gaining education on historical matters and am actively advocating for my eavesdropping as long as you either wrote a historical commentary or a sex manual afterwards.

Another historical author whose education came from eavesdropping is Murasaki Shikibu who wrote ‘The Tale of Genji’ in the 11th Century which is famously considered the first novel ever written. ‘The Tale of Genji’ is written in Japanese, a language considered feminine in comparison to Chinese, especially during the Heian period in which China had large sway in Japan. Thus Chinese was considered to be reserved for men whilst women learnt Japanese - it’s always exciting when an entire language is gatekept on the basis of gender, exciting and arguably a little ridiculous. Despite having written in Japanese Shikibu also learnt how to write in Chinese. How? I hear you ask, by ‘eavesdropping on her brother’s lessons’ (Mosse, 2022). Once again eavesdropping is the answer to all educational problems, when refused education simply stound outside with a cup to the wall and take any necessary notes. (Or maybe allow women an education, just a thought?).

During Shikibu’s lifetime, her work was a personal activity and heavily guarded, only known about by potentially two other women living in court with whom she shared poems. Furthermore, her style of writing was incredibly unique with characters often remaining nameless only determined by their positions in court or by the fashion of their dress. As well as being an entertaining form of literature her novel is an insight into life at a Japanese court as she references contemporary events, worries, and popular culture. Thus once again an incredible written work was created by a woman due to her ability to eavesdrop, observe and garner an education even whilst it was refused her.

Beyond literature, it is important to also explore the role of female mathematicians… which like is great and all because women sneakily gained an education in maths as well, I’m just much less likely to actually understand the importance of their work due to a deep deep deep distaste for maths. But unlike me, Marie Sophie Germain loved maths… When Germain was 13 the tensions of the French Revolution and the fall of the Bastille (1789) forced her to stay inside due to the impending danger outdoors. To entertain herself, Germains turned to her father’s library full of maths books, but of course, after devouring those books and requesting an education in mathematics specifically her parents refused. I’d like to say to protect her from a lifetime of boredom, but no in reality my usual nemesis was to blame - misogyny.

However, in 1794 when the Ecole Polytechnique was opened Germain took the pen name ‘M. Le Blanc’ and became pals with faculty member Lagrange. He then requested to meet his new buddy the supposed Mr White, and in a shocking turn of events accepted that Germain was a woman and took her under his wing becoming her mentor. Germain went on to win the grand prize from the ‘Paris Academy of Science’ in 1816 because of an essay she wrote about ‘elasticity theory’ (which I have googled and is apparently about elastic surfaces in relation to equations and, and I quote, “systems” which is really specific). Despite this obvious talent and knowledge, Germain was unable to build a career in a maths faculty because of the pesky woman thing so she instead worked independently. Arguably a smashing thing to do; no workplace sexual harassment or split shifts, the only dark spot being the fact that she was forced into independence by misogyny. Darn the patriarchy.

Well, there you have three examples of women who gained an education in the face of adversity. I will accept that they are random choices, and my excuse is simply I like them all. In each example you see women overcoming those who simply said no school for you. Pamphile eavesdropping on her husband, writing it all down and then casually defining the literary structure that defined the following 200 years. Shikibu eavesdropped on her brother’s lesson and then went on to write the first novel ever, what did her brother even do with his easily won education? Nish. And then Germain simply pretended to be a man against her parent's wishes to do her whole elasticity thing (which I don’t understand but support her methods).

What I’m trying to say in a Pamphile-esque tapestry style is that women’s education is critical and without it, we wouldn’t have novels as we know them, we wouldn’t know some stuff about elastic nor would Roman Literature have the genre of ‘Miscellaneous History’. Therefore, the protection of women’s education is critical and likely something I take for granted, but through reading about these three women I have begun to appreciate it further, and hope that maybe you do too.

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Bibliography

McDaniel, Spencer. 2021. “Pamphile of Epidauros: A Female Ancient Greek Historian.” Tales of Times Forgotten. https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2021/07/17/pamphile-of-epidauros-a-female-ancient-greek-historian/.

Mercado, Karen. n.d. “Murasaki Shikibu: The Woman Who Wrote the World’s First Novel | Blog.” Domestika. https://www.domestika.org/en/blog/10212-murasaki-shikibu-the-woman-who-wrote-the-world-s-first-novel.

Mosse, Kate. 2022. Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries. Pan Macmillan.

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