The current paper seeks to investigate the achievements of two female writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries representing two European countries: Mary Hays and Pauline de Meulan-Guizot. They were both highly involved in the issue of education, albeit from separate angles. Mary Hays, an adept of Godwinian and Helvetian philosophies, emphasized the need for schooling in general, and for girls in particular, and much of her journalism was dedicated to the cause of female liberation. Pauline de Meulan wrote several pedagogical and didactic works, both together with her husband, the liberal politician François Guizot,and independently. Her concern was mainly focussed on the moral upbringing of the young.  The aim of this study is to consider the difference in purpose of the two writers as well as identifying the links between them.