A Brief History of Women in Higher Education

In honor of Women’s History Month, this month’s teaching blog is about the history of women’s education and how teaching became thought of as a feminine career.

If you are interested in reading beyond what I’ve gathered, check out some great sources at the end!

The Need for Women’s Education

For most of the United States’ history, women were viewed as homemakers and were primarily in charge of all things domestic. Most fulfilled roles within the household, and were the main caregivers of their families, especially children.

Since most of the country was still pretty rural in the 1800s, women and children in the household were thought to be sheltered from the realities of a world that was often unkind. The idea of the “Cult of Domesticity” started in the beginning of the 19th century and continued to gain traction throughout the years.

Women’s God-given role, it stated, was as wife and mother, keeper of the household, guardian of the moral purity of all who lived therein
Thoughts from the Cult of Domesticity

The thought was that, “Women’s God-given role, it stated, was as wife and mother, keeper of the household, guardian of the moral purity of all who lived therein” (Conner Prairie). Women were the moral standard for the home and acted as a compass for their husband and children - especially through Protestant beliefs.

As the world changed, women began to realize that there could be more to life than bringing up children and tending to the house. This didn’t mean everyone was ready for women to seek work and fulfillment outside the household, but that opportunity was right around the corner. .

Every-great-dream-begins-with-a-dreamer..png

It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that women really began to have a chance to attain a college education. Women’s colleges, and co-ed colleges, began to allow women to attend a limited number of programs. Oberlin College in Ohio was the first to admit women in 1837.

Women were able to attend teaching schools, sometimes called Normal Schools. They were also allowed to enroll in home economics programs. Any woman attending college was doing so to better be able to tend to her home and children - not necessarily to enrich her life or interests, and certainly not to become an income earner outside the home. Or so the majority thought when these schools began to open.

Women’s career paths were opening up as education expanded. With so many people moving to the cities, and men taking other kinds of jobs, there was a shortage of teachers amidst a growing public education system. This proved to be problematic when there were more students and people than ever before!

As women were beginning to add to the teaching force, they were also going into medical careers with jobs like nursing, and some even became doctors. The thought of women having extensive medical knowledge still made many men feel uncomfortable, but everyone was learning.

It perhaps isn’t surprising that women were involved in the medical field, as they had almost always been considered carers. Who better to take care of sick and injured patients than loving carers armed with knowledge? The same thought makes sense for adding women to the teaching workforce.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68eWJl_pcw&feature=youtu.be

Although men had historically been in charge of children’s education, opinion began to sway toward women filling this need for more teachers. Some thought of women as the perfect fit because they were believed to be more nurturing than men.

Some thought of teaching as an extension of domestic life - a way to teach women how to properly raise boys to be good men. Still others thought that teaching children was much like tending to children at home (including instruction in purity), a task women had already been doing for years.

Although men had historically been in charge of children’s education, opinion began to sway toward women filling this need for more teachers.

Women were also seen as cheaper labor for better work. They would teach and do the hard work of continuing to instill morals and manners in the children, but would not have to be paid the same as male teachers. Schools hired in male principals to resolve any conflicts too “rough” for the women to deal with, and that’s when the quintessential idea of the young, unmarried, pretty school teacher started to become prevalent.

Just because the world had opened up a little, though, did not mean that everyone was an open book to women’s education. Colleges, if they did admit women, extended only a few available programs to women. In fact, until Title IX was passed in 1972, colleges were legally allowed to restrict what programs women could enroll in.

Access to Higher Education

College, in general, was much different for women attendees than it is for contemporary women. Most schools were gender separate because administration thought the dignity of men’s education would be compromised by women and that women might become less delicate if they had as much knowledge as men.

Women’s suffrage was a work-in-progress, and although many people thought women’s education was important, not everyone agreed on why or how. One of the women on the forefront of a more conservative view of education for women was Catharine Beecher.

Beecher founded both the Hartford Female Seminary (with her sister) and the Western Female Institute. She was a big promoter of girl’s Physical Education (PE), and offered a wide range of subjects to her students in both institutions. Her main focus in these institutions was training women to be better and more educated wives and mothers.

The proper education of a man decides the welfare of an individual; but education a woman, and the interests of the whole family are secured.
Catharine Beecher, Treatise on Domestic Economy

Interestingly, Beecher was against women’s suffrage. Her most famous book A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841), was all about women’s place in the home, and as educators. She believed that women’s power was in the domestic sphere, not out in the wide world.

As the two schools of thought pushed against each other, progression did occur. It wasn’t without struggle, much the same as with other movements of the time.

Women who went to college didn’t marry as quickly, if at all, compared to women who had less education. They also weren’t having as many children. In a society where gender roles were rigid and there were a lot of traditional expectations of each sex, this became a really big problem.

If the original intent was to make better wives and mothers, but women weren’t taking either of those roles at the same rates as before, the “goal” of higher education for women was missed - at least according to traditionalists.

This would be an ongoing battle with women’s education, and other rights that make up equality. It remained quite a debate for many years following - all the way through the 60s, and even afterward!

Title IX was passed in 1972, which made it illegal for any institution to discriminate based on sex for activities and programs that were federally funded. Even then women faced considerable barriers to higher education outside what were considered “women’s careers” like teaching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5K-pIRUnbY

The Women’s Rights Movement

The progress in education would not have been possible if not for the hard work of women throughout the years.

It all officially started on July 13, 1848 - 172 years ago! - in New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a mother and housewife, went to tea with a few other women in her social circle and vented her frustration about the limitations she was facing as a woman. The American Revolution was over and won, but was everyone truly free from tyranny?

Her friends agreed: they all felt the same discontent. So, they made a plan for change.

No one thought this change would be easy.

Just a week later at the Seneca Falls Convention on July 19-20, 1848, the movement clearly defined their grievances in a document called the Declaration of Sentiments. Elizabeth Cady Stanton modeled the document after the Declaration of Independence.

There were a number of people at the convention who were shocked by the idea of women wanting the right to vote. They were eventually swayed, however, and the movement was official. It’s important to note here that the movement wasn’t just comprised of women. There were many men who fought to make changes, too.

No one thought this change would be easy.

In the end of the Declaration of Sentiments, there is a striking line:

“In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object.”
The Declaration of Sentiments, 1848

“In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object.”

After the convention, the women at Seneca Falls had hoped for conventions like theirs to spread across the country - and they did! Some conventions were small and some were so large they overflowed the meeting spaces.

Of course big change doesn’t come without resistance. The media slammed the new ideas, and, as we probably all relate, this can sometimes cause people to change their minds or retract their forward-thinking ideas. BUT, thankfully for us, the women’s movement soldiered on!

Elizabeth Cady Stanton wasn’t the only woman pioneering the movement. She also had the help of other amazing women such as: Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Lucy Stone.

There were also many incredible African-American women working for the cause. With as much struggle as white women faced, women of color faced even more hardship.

Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell were instrumental in rallying thousands of African-American women who were fighting for equality for all women.

After all of this momentous effort, the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 and women everywhere were legally allowed to vote.

The Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor was also established in 1920 to monitor women’s experience in the workplace, advocate for equality, and protect women at work.

Progress continued, and in the 1960s a new wave of the women’s movement commenced. We have continued to build and grow since!

Some of this may be old news, but I hope you learned some new and interesting things! I know I had fun reading about some of the women who worked so hard to get us where we are today.

What do you think? Drop a comment below or email me at rachel@capturingyourconfidence.com - let’s chat!