Patrick J. Keenan—a noted 19th century educator and school administrator in Ireland— was also a staunch believer in unyieldingly restrictive roles for women, which included remarks, published in 1855, that left little room for debate.

“After marriage,” Keenan wrote, “HOME is the abiding place of woman, the natural centre and seat of all her occupations, the cause of all her anxieties, the object of all her solicitude, and it is a deranged state of society that encourages her to seek employment beyond its precincts.”

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