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The New Reading Public In 1850 about half the population of western Europe and a much higher proportion of Russians were illiterate. That situation changed during the next half century. Advances in Primary Education The attack on illiteracy proved most successful in Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia, where by 1900 approximately 85 percent or more of the people could read. The new primary education in the basic skills of reading and writing and elementary arithmetic …

…problems as women in a variety of ways, confronting them not only by seeking the vote. Nonetheless, late in the last century and early in this one, they defined the issues that would become more fully and successfully explored after World War II. Increasingly, feminists would concentrate on freeing and developing women's personalities through better education and government financial support for women engaged in traditional social roles, whether or not they had gained the vote.