1. The idea of female education was debated intensely. 2. Significantly - it was the social reformer Jotiba Phule who opened the first school for women in Pune.(c)For others caste and gender oppression was intrinsicto the religion. 4. Reformers argued that for a society to progress women have to be educated. Some of them believed that in pre-modern India - women were educated. 5. Others contested this on the grounds that this was so only of a privileged few.