Bluestocking Women: Part Two – From Salons to Social Change
If you thought the Bluestocking women just sat around sipping tea and exchanging philosophical ideas, think again! Sure, the salons were a playground for intellectual exchange, but these gatherings were just the beginning. What happened after the conversations ended is where the real magic began.
After the lively debates in Elizabeth Montagu’s living room (you know, where men wore blue wool stockings and women wore their brains on their sleeves), something remarkable happened—action. The women who attended these salons weren’t content to simply talk. They got their hands dirty in the best way possible, rolling up their sleeves to push for societal reforms, championing everything from education for women to the abolition of slavery. Think of them as the 18th century’s version of multitaskers—half the time discussing literature, the other half challenging the status quo.
Take Hannah More, for instance. Not only did she pen her own plays and writings, but she also took the lessons from the salon straight into action by becoming a powerful voice in the abolitionist movement. While Fanny Burney was busy laying the groundwork for modern novels (Jane Austen, you’ve got competition!), More was out there reminding us that intellectual women were also doers.
In fact, those Bluestocking conversations were a jumping-off point for some incredible societal reforms. It wasn’t all quill pens and ink pots—these women understood the power of literature and dialogue to inspire real change. Montagu herself didn’t just host bookish get-togethers; she wrote influential essays and letters, encouraging women to pursue knowledge and advocating for education reform.
Oh, and let’s not forget that some of these women broke into the male-dominated publishing world—without pretending to be men. Yes, Fanny Burney published under her own name. Imagine that in an era when women’s literature was often trivialized as gossip or—heaven forbid—unladylike.
Even their quieter accomplishments proved radical. The Bluestockings helped normalize the idea of women as intellectual equals, not just social ornaments. It was a slow revolution, but every argument in favor of women’s education and every book written by a woman helped pave the way for future generations of thinkers, dreamers, and doers.
And here’s the twist—while the salons were places of highbrow conversations, the women who gathered there were also slowly but surely breaking down the walls of societal expectations. By the time the last cup of tea was drained, these women had done more than just talk—they had inspired a generation to see women’s minds as just as valuable as men’s.
So next time you’re sitting in a café with friends discussing the latest in literature, science, or politics, raise a mug to the Bluestockings. They proved that sipping tea and swapping ideas could change the world.

Vittorio Reggianini ,Italian painter (1858–1938)
Curious to dig for more information on the plucky Bluestocking?
1. Eger, Elizabeth. Bluestockings: Women of Reason from Enlightenment to Romanticism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
2. Guest, Harriet. Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
3. Hill, Bridget. Eighteenth-Century Women: An Anthology. Routledge, 1984.
4. Myers, Sylvia Harcstark. The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England. Oxford University Press, 1990.
5. Spender, Dale. Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen. Pandora Press, 1986.
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