Bluestocking

A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman. Such women are stereotyped as being frumpy and the reference to blue stockings refers to the time when woolen worsted stockings were informal dress, as compared with formal, fashionable black silk stockings.

The term originated with the Blue Stockings Society - a literary society founded by Elizabeth Montagu in the 1750s. Such women have increased in number since, as women now enter higher education in large numbers. For example, in Britain, women are now 55% of new entrants to university and outnumber men at every level up to PhD.

Women are still under pressure to dress fashionably and an old saying is "women don't become bluestockings until men have tired of looking at their legs". Successful intellectual women such as Susan Greenfield and Noreena Hertz dress attractively for publicity photoshoots. Successful politician Margaret Thatcher was approvingly described by the BBC as "very pretty, and dresses most attractively. Very feminine ... her main charm was that she does not look like a career woman."

Women who fail to do this may become the subject of hostile comment, such as "bet she's got hairy legs" and these correspond to older prejudices such as that of William Hazlitt who said, "The bluestocking is the most odious character in society ... she sinks wherever she is placed, like the yolk of an egg, to the bottom, and carries the filth with her."