Advocate and exemplar of women's education, Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) was one of Reformation Europe's most renowned writers defending women's intelligence. A supporter of the female sex, she argues that the same rigorous education that shaped her should be made available to all Christian daughters of the aristocracy. This text contains Schurman's defence of women's education, her letters to other learned women, her own account of her early life as well as responses to her work from male contemporaries. It also includes rare writings by Schurman's mentor, Voetius.