As her husband was absent during the civil war and Makin raised their children alone. He died in 1659. Her sister died two years later. By 1673 Makin and Mark Lewis had established a school for gentlewomen in Tottenham High Cross, then four miles out of London. Elizabeth Drake, the mother of Elizabeth Montagu, and Sarah Scott are said to have been educated at the school. The school at which Makin was governess taught music, song and dance, but also writing in English, keeping accounts, Latin and French. If students wished they could also learn Greek, Hebrew, Italian and Spanish. In 1673 Makin circulated a pamphlet entitled "An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen", which argued the case for educating women. Makin maintained correspondence with the Dutch scholar Anna Maria van Schurman and Schurman refers to Makin in a letter to Simonds d'Ewes which was published with the English translation of Schurman's treatise in support of women's education "The Learned Maid" in 1659. d'Ewes was a former pupil of Makin's father and is the source for the claim that she was the greatest scholar of any woman in England. Makin praises Schurman in her "An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen", published 1673. Makin and van Schurman both maintain that only women with enough time, wealth, and basic intelligence should receive a humanist education. Mary Astell would echo Makin's arguments in "A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part I" published in 1694. Makin, like her contemporary Diana Primrose, relied on Queen Elizabeth I and the humanist education she received at a young age, to support her arguments for the education of women. Makin also cited Margaret Roper and Anne Cooke Bacon as authoritative models for the claim that women's education would have a pious benefit for the state. Like Anne Askew, whose writings had been published 1563 by John Foxe in "Acts and Monuments" and which had shaped the English Reformation, Makin argued that "our very Reformation of Religion, seems to be begun and carried on by Women." Makin was also influenced by the writings of John Amos Comenius and adhered to his advice that vernacular (ordinary) language should be used instead of Latin when teaching. The treatise is structured in three parts, beginning with a letter written in favour of educating women, followed by a letter arguing against the education of women, and a lengthy third part defending women's use of speech and resolving the debate in favour of educating women.