unlike many of the prominent advocates for the education of women before her, such as La Roche, Herder, and Goethe. Holst rejected the idea of separate curricula for the genders, believing that women could and should learn the same things men do. This was not an accepted idea at the time. Her ideas diverged from most her contemporary equal-education advocates as well, including the likes of Hippel, Wollstonecraft, and Condorcet. While they were in favor of an advanced public coeducation system, Holst insisted on a professional maternal educator who would instruct her children in all academic disciplines from early childhood through adolescence. Asserting that only women who were thoroughly educated themselves were fit to educate the next generation, and thus, Holst reasoned that every woman was to be educated. She advocated for an in-depth knowledge of history, the sciences, philosophy, geography, and the arts. Holst stressed that the most important quality of an effective maternal educator was the ability to draw meaningful connections among all disciplines. She also placed an emphasis on individual perfection, urging women to engage continually in intellectual pursuits throughout the course of their lives. Holst made several demands for the education of women: Women were to have complete freedom to study every subject. Women were to be given access to original sources, as opposed to those specifically written for women, which she claimed offered “superficial knowledge” and which “treat [women] like overgrown children”. Exceptionally intelligent women were to have access to a formal university education. They were to be free of the pressure to have children. She used the philosophers Kant and Leibniz as examples, noting that both were celibate, but their “immortal works, the offspring of their minds, have enriched the world”. Why then, Holst argued, shouldn't the same apply to women? She demanded acceptance that women were capable of achievements in the most advanced fields of thought. Holst asserts “there exists no proof that a woman’s mind cannot comprehend the higher sciences”. References 1758 births 1829 deaths German women academics German feminists Education writers 18th-century German educators 18th-century German writers 18th-century German women writers 19th-century German educators 19th-century German writers 19th-century German women writers 19th-century women educators