Episode 339: Mary Sarah Bilder, Women and the Constitutional Moment of 1787

Between May 25 and September 17, 1787, delegates from each of the United States’ thirteen states assembled in Philadelphia for an event we now call the Constitutional Convention.

What do we know about the moment of the United States Constitution’s creation? What was happening around the Convention, and what issues were Americans discussing and debating as the Convention’s delegates met?

Mary Sarah Bilder, an award-winning historian and the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, joins us to investigate the context of the United States Constitution’s creation with details from her book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution.

This episode is supported by an American Rescue Plan grant to the Omohundro Institute from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Mary Sarah Bilder, an award-winning historian and the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, joins us to investigate the context of the United States Constitution’s creation with details from her book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution.

During our investigation, Mary reveals information about Eliza Harriot and her efforts to promote the idea of “female genius”; The ways in which early Americans believed that education went hand-in-hand with a healthy representative government; And, the feeling of probability for women’s inclusion in the early American political state, as seen in early voting rights, changing views on girls’ education, and the gender-neutral language of the United States Constitution.

What You’ll Discover

Eliza Harriot
Female genius
Mary Wollstonecraft and the historic moment of female genius
Early life and education of Eliza Harriot
Travel around the British Empire
Eliza Harriot and the American Revolution
Eliza’s experience with British colonialism in North America & Ireland
Eliza Harriot’s return to North America & the United States
Schools established by Eliza Harriot
Schools and colleges in the early Republic
Eliza’s move to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention
Public speaking and women
Women’s debating societies
The history of female genius
George Washington’s impressions of Eliza Harriot and her lectures
The probability of women’s political participation in the early Republic
Benjamin Rush and his views on women’s education
New Jersey and women’s political participation
Women’s voting rights
Gender-neutral language of the United States Constitution
Eliza Harriot after Philadelphia
Women and the United States Constitution

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if George Washington had never attended Eliza Harriot’s lecture? What do you think we’d know about Eliza Harriot today? And how do you think the United States Constitution would have been written and styled?