Women’s education in early twentieth-century Tamil Nadu developed within a society structured by caste hierarchy, Brahmanical authority and deeply rooted patriarchal customs. Formal schooling for girls remained limited and where it existed, it often reinforced ideals of domestic obedience rather than intellectual autonomy. Within this setting, Periyar advanced a radically different understanding of education. Grounded in his rationalist critique of religion and social inequality, he treated women’s education as a means to dismantle inherited systems of subordination. Through his speeches, essays and organisational work in the Self-Respect Movement from the 1920s onwards, Periyar argued that literacy and critical inquiry would enable women to question scriptural sanction, resist enforced marriage practices and claim property and civic rights. He rejected the notion that women’s learning should serve family honour or religious duty, insisting instead on scientific temper and independent thought. His campaigns for widow remarriage, birth control and equal inheritance were closely tied to his insistence on educational access. Placed within the political climate of colonial reform debates and emergent Dravidian assertion, his position redefined education as an instrument of structural change. Women’s education thus assumed the character of a social revolution aimed at reshaping gender relations and redistributing authority within Tamil society.