Women and Education in America

1. Women and Education in America By Veronica Garcia

2. Women in the Colonial Age • The basis of the colonial’s perspective of educating women started with reference back to the traditions of Europe. • In Europe, if you were from a wealthy family, you might receive some form of informal education from a governess. It was also possible that you would be sent off to a convent. • Women were not being taught in order to prepare them for a professional life so their education was limited to the basics of reading and writing. • Education was only the privilege of the wealthy so if one was in the middle class their boys’ education would come first. If you were in an even lower class it was likely that none of your children, male or female, were receiving an education. • As America’s population grew in certain areas individual tutors went out of fashion as there was enough pupils to begin town schools. • New England • Boys and girls attended what was called a “dame school”. The school was usually run by a local women who did the job while also attending to her more regular chores. In it, each gender was taught skills that would best benefit them in the future. Girls and boys both learned the basics of reading and writing. Girls also learned how to sew and knit. Boys instead learned more basic skills that were required for a “town school”. • A girl’s education usually ended after “dame school” while a boy could choose to continue his education. Girls were explicitly banned from attending the next level of education in all but a few New England towns. • It was not until the end of the 18th century that one sees the opening of “town schools” to females.

3. Women in the Colonial Age cont. • The South • Unlike New England, this part of the country consisted of many plantations that were a great distance from one another. This made it difficult to start “town schools”. Due to this the South continued on the tradition of hiring private tutors. Girls were sometimes allowed to sit in their brother’s lessons or a governess would possibly be hired. • Girls were taught to read so they could continue their study of the Bible. They were taught to write for the purpose of keeping household expenses. • Along with reading and writing, girls were taught skills more in tune with their gender such as cooking, needlework, and etiquette. • The purpose of educating a female was to teach her how be a pious wife and mother. • Quakers • The Quakers had their own ideas about education and believed that both males and females should be educated. • But the two genders were taught separately and female’s education did focus mainly on domestic skills.

4. The Revolution • The idea of women and education began to change after the American Revolution. The concept of Republican motherhood was born. This was the idea that American citizens had to be educated and virtuous. Since it was the women who were raising and nurturing children, the future citizens, they too had to be educated so they could in turn teach their children how to be good citizens. This idea did not give women equal right to education, but it certainly opened the door to it. • Women such as Judith Sargent Murray, featured below, started to emerge. Murray advocated the idea that women were not being intellectually stimulated and that they were in fact not intellectually inferior to men. She encouraged and emphasized the need for women’s education. • In the late 1700s as the economy began to shift towards more industrialized production, richer families could afford to allow their females more free time. With this free time they could further their education. Also, females in the middle class also started to enjoy these benefits. “Adventure” schools started to open up which was when a single teacher taught popular subjects such as music, dancing, or needlework. While the subjects were not very academic they did help the interest in women’s education grow.

5. Secondary Education • In 1787, the first secondary education institution opens up to women. It is founded in Philadelphia and is called the Young Ladies Academy. The academy is supervised by male political leaders in the region, Benjamin Rush being one of the more famous examples. The curriculum consisted of subjects such as reading, writing, grammar, math, geography, and chemistry. Here you can see a shift from only teaching “female skills” to actual academics. • The school offered prize awards for those who excelled academically and sermons were given by males who were leading members of the community. Women were being given similar advantages as was seen in men’s institutions. • In the 1800s, more of these academies began to open. The curriculum varied among them. • In 1815, The Female Seminary Movement began. A seminary was a female academy that believed itself to be more serious. It’s goal was to form schools that offered women an education that was just as equal to that of a man’s. • These new academies and seminaries offered something the small schools with only one teacher could not. While a small school could only focus on one subject for a very short time in order to try and get as much variety possible, these bigger institutions could cover more subjects and do them in more depth.

6. Coeducation in Secondary Schools • In the 1800s, there is the beginning of the shift from private to public secondary schools. • In 1821, the first ever public high school operated by the government is opened up in United States. It is called Boston English School and is located in Boston, MA. Throughout the next decades the expansion of public school systems continue. • MA passes laws that help organize public schools into a system that is under one authority and in 1827, MA passes a law that requires public high schools. • In 1848, Seneca Falls, a convention where women’s rights were discussed, advocated for coeducation in the public schools that were becoming more popular. • It was already more economical in some parts of the country to have coeducation because the the male population was not large enough. • By 1860, most states had some sort of public school system and it was the norm for them to be coeducational. By this time both primary and secondary schools were allowing both males and females. • Private institutions still continued though they now catered more to the wealthy instead of also accepting the middle class. Female private schools were now called finishing schools as they did not attend college so it was the end of their education.

7. Women and Colleges • In the mid-1800s, colleges that accepted women started to emerge. There were some that opened completely from scratch and others were previously seminary schools which turned into colleges. • Some colleges offered a more serious curriculum such as that found in men's colleges while others still remained at a level inferior to men. For the more serious colleges women had to pass rigorous admission tests. • In 1833, Oberlin College became the first college to admit women. • The college was found by a group of abolitionists who also admitted African Americans. The women’s curriculum was still not to the standard of men as there were certain courses they were not allowed to take. Their curriculum was referred to as the “Ladies Course” and it pushed women to enter motherhood instead of pursuing a career. • The first college for women was opened in 1836 in Macon, Georgia. It was called Georgia Female College. In 1843, it adopted the name, Wesleyan College. It also offered a preparatory program so that women who did receive enough education to enter into the institution could continue their studies there first. • Catherine Brewer is the one of the first women to earn a bachelor’s degree when she graduates from here in 1840. • Mount Holyoke was chartered in 1836, though it was technically not called a college until 1893. It still had all the academic standards for a college. Due to a limited amount of space it only had 80 students and 400 applicants had to be denied. The school was also geared toward the middle class. Difficult entrance exams were taken before acceptance. There was a big emphasis on math and science subjects which was very unusual in women’s schools.

8. Women and College cont. • There are cases where male colleges do not advertise themselves as accepting women, but have admitted women into their colleges. • In 1847, Geneva College, accepted Elizabeth Blackwell into their medical school. She had been rejected from 29 other medical schools before her acceptance. Geneva College put the decision of her acceptance to the student body believing that the all-made students would never allow a women to join. As a joke many of the students voted yes and she was admitted into the school despite reluctance by the faculty and most of the students. • When Elizabeth Blackwell graduated in 1849 she was the first woman to ever receive an M.D. degree from a medical school in America. Oberlin College Georgia Female College Mount Holyoke Seminary

9. Co-education in Colleges • In the East, there was almost no co-education in colleges before 1860. It was not until later that “coordinate” colleges such as Radcliffe and Barnard would start to open and not until much later that these colleges merged with the men’s colleges. • There were worries about men and women being educated together. Some worries included: • The idea that a woman would breakdown if she tried to compete in a man’s world. • Women would lose their purity and become corrupted. • Somehow their reproductive systems would be damaged. • If men and women had to learn and associate with each other in college they would begin to find the other less attractive. • An exception to this is Pennsylvania which opened Waynesburg University to women in 1851. There was also Westminster College in Pennsylvania which became co-ed in 1852. • Co-education in the West began with the full admittance of women to Oberlin College in 1837, instead of allowing allowing them access to certain programs. • Co-education in the West continued with Hillsdale College’s (Maine) acceptance of women in 1844. Then there was Franklin College (Indiana) in 1845. Otterbein University (Ohio), allowed both women faculty and students in 1847. Willamette University (Oregon), Lawrence University (Wisconsin), and Antioch College (Ohio) all went co-ed in 1853.

10. Female African Americans • Schools for African American children did not start to show up until the early 1800s. Opening one of these schools was dangerous as the person who did was often threatened and could face being attacked. • Prudence Crandall and Alice White, two women who opened schools for African American, were both forced to close their school and were either met with jail time or ostracization from the community. • In 1842, Henrietta Delilleopened up an academy under the Sisters of the Holy Family. • The school was a girl’s academy which tried to cater to the needs of poverty stricken African Americans. • Delille went on to help establish schools throughout the country. • In 1833, Oberlin College did not only open its doors to women, but African Americans. Many African American women earn certificates from the college, such as Lucy Ann Stanton who gets one in literature, but it will not be until after 1860 that the first African American female gets her bachelor’s degree. • The first female African American medical student will also not be until after 1860. HenrietteDelille

11. Pictures An example of a dame school Mary Caroline Rudd Allen – Among one of the first women to receive a bachelor’s degree Elizabeth Blackwell – the first women to graduate from a medical school in the United States An example of a seminary-girls class. This one is taken from one located in Florida in 1851.

12. Bibliography http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/education/introduction.html http://www.ushistory.org/us/12d.asp http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/benjaminfranklin300/11revolutionary_visions.cfm http://www.cblpi.org/ftp/School%20Choice/EdHistory.pdf http://www.philographikon.com/unieducation.html http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_35.html http://collegestats.org/articles/2013/01/the-first-10-u-s-colleges-to-go-co-ed/ http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2009/03/11/historic-firsts-in-womens-education-in-the-united-states