Which of the following titles best describes the content of the passage? (Big book p238, q 24)
(A) Eighteenth-Century Egalitarianism.
(B) Feminists of the Eighteenth Century.
(C) Eighteenth-Century Precursors of Feminism.
(D) Intellectual Life in the Eighteenth Century.
(E) Female Education Reform in the Eighteenth Century.
I want to understand why choice E is incorrect ?
The passage does mention about “Female education”, it also mentioned that it was not very much supported by society and women in “Bluestockings” or “Salons” did have big influence on society’s women in terms on education so there is a level of “Reform” too. On the other hand, correct answer is C, which have been mentioned just once in the end.
Neither type of literary salon was focused on reform of any sort, and the passage mentions at several points how the activism (and thus reform-mindedness) of the salon attendees was limited for both the English and French groups (though more so for the French salons).
While you could argue that these salons laid the groundwork for female education reform, this just points to why C is a better answer, since it specifically includes the fact that these salons were precursors to feminism. Remember, the ending of the passage talks specifically about how the Bluestockings planted the seeds for a later feminist movement, rather than a female education reform movement (which would be a subcategory of a broader feminist movement, anyway).
The passage describes this rough chain of effects:
Salonnieres → Bluestockings → feminism
Which is a pretty clear indication that C should be the answer we go with.