Martineau wrote Household Education in 1848 lamenting the state of women's education. She believed women had a natural inclination to motherhood and believed domestic work went hand in hand with academia for a proper well-rounded education. She stated "I go further than most persons... in desiring thorough practice in domestic occupations from an early age for young girls." She proposed that freedom and rationality rather than command and obedience are the most effectual instruments of education.