Judith Sargent Murray utilizes this term to reference both a formal education and a self-taught education. Both she and her brother were schooled by a private tutor, but her brother was later enrolled in Harvard. Murray believes that formal education is the best type and should be afforded to young men and women equally. Likewise, she considers that continuing study and self-improvement are important throughout life for both the sexes and that women should be enabled to have intellectual pursuits alongside their duties. In a time before universal education, access was limited to those with financial means: Murray argues for equal access to education for men and women, but her essay does not argue for universal education or increased access across the social strata.

Appearing in the title of Murray’s essay, the idea of equality is framed with regard to equality of the sexes, at the heart of Murray’s feminist purpose. Murray’s essay asserts that equality between the sexes is innate and natural and that only social structures (such as financial dependence, lack of education and opportunity, legal oppression, etc.) keep women from being equal to men in practice. In the late 1700s, the ideal of natural “equality” was a key part of America’s identity, although this equality was in practice only recognized for white male citizens.