Austen’s novel grapples with the question of what female education should be, both in terms of literacy and accomplishments and through life experience. Given that in 1800, only forty percent of English women were literate, the novel’s characters are relatively privileged, whether being tutored by either a governess like Emma, or going to a school like Harriet. However, the novel shows that none of its female characters receive an education that enables them to have the same understanding of the world as men.

The kind of education available to girls in Highbury differs from that of the fashionable world in which Jane Fairfax and Mrs. Elton were raised. Both Emma’s well-intentioned but ultimately relaxed education with Miss Taylor, and Harriet’s at Miss Goddard’s boarding school, are characterized by a lack of rigor. Both the school and the governess system are designed to give girls just enough knowledge and accomplishments to enable them to make a socially advantageous marriage. Crucially, these forms of education are not designed to make the girls “prodigies” who may be a “danger” to the established social and gender hierarchy. However, the novel also shows that the education available to Highbury’s females ill equips them for thriving in the existing society, as it does not teach them discipline, persistence, or moral integrity.