The History of Women's Education in the United States

Introduction: Movement Towards Women’s Education

Women were not always allowed an education. Gender roles used to dictate what women did with their lives: they had to stay home and cook, clean and watch the children. Nowadays, especially in more developed countries, women are given more freedom; they are more involved in society, and are able to receive quality education in order to move forward in their lives and careers.

This change was not easy. Women have had to fight hard for their right to an education, and in some countries, the fight is still going on. However, as long as women keep fighting, they will someday bear the fruits of their labor— we will see a world where women and men are given the same educational opportunities.

Women's Education in the US Prior to the 1800s

Before the 19th century, girls were usually educated in “dame schools,” which were elementary schools run by working-class women in the community, at Sunday School, where girls would mostly learn about Christianity and the Bible, or at home by their parents.

Education conformed to societal expectations; women’s education primarily consisted of the very basics of reading, writing, and math, as well as domestic skills like cooking, embroidering, and how to entertain guests.

In 1772, the Morvians (a Protestant group) established one of the first schools for women in Salem, North Carolina. This university would later become Salem College, and provide thousands of girls the opportunity to get a quality education.

Along with that, in the early 1790s, Mary Wollstonecraft published her famous book “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects,” in which she advocated for more equal rights between women and men, including the right to education.

Women's Education in the US during the 1800s

In the early 1800s, there were some secondary schools that accepted girls into their ranks, but not many. Along with that, women in these schools were separated from men; women faced immense segregation in schools for years.

Around the 1840s, the public started to acknowledge the importance of women’s education: it was common opinion that women, who were the first educators of their children, should be given a higher quality of education in order to provide the next generation with proper foundations.

In 1848, the first Declaration of Sentiments was read aloud at the Seneca Falls convention. This document outlined women’s desires to have equal rights with men in all aspects of life, including education. While it introduced ideas that seemed radical at the time, the Declaration of Sentiments was a key driving force for the fight for gender equality in the 19th Century.

The mid-1800s also brought the graduation of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to be given an MD degree, in 1849. After being rejected from over 10 schools, Blackwell attended Geneva Medical College, and after graduation, she went on to form the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary in 1867, where she worked to empower, aid, and educate other women looking to earn medical degrees.

The actions of women like Elizabeth Blackwell, as well as studies and reports like that which was submitted by the Taunton Commission in 1860, supported the idea that women have the same mental capacity as men. They helped to provide confidence to the public that women’s education is important and can be valuable to society. As the 19th century came to a close, women’s education, as well as advocacy by feminists, had increased dramatically, although education was still not very accessible to a majority of women.

Women's Education in the US during the 1900s

By 1900, there were over 30 boarding schools for women in the country— women’s education, although far from equal, was on the rise, and it would continue to grow throughout the 20th century.

In 1909, Ella Flagg Young became the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, and also became the first female superintendent of a large city school system. She went on to be elected president of the National Education Association, reflecting the changes in the attitude of the public towards both women in power and women’s education throughout the 19th century.

1920 saw the ratification of the 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote. This amendment gave women more power and more of a voice in politics; along with that, it indirectly promoted women’s education. In order to vote responsibly, one must be educated on the affairs of the country— therefore, in order to promote fair voting by half of the population, women’s education became a more popularized idea.

In 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was ratified, which prohibited all discrimination on the basis of sex in education. Along with that, in 1974, the Women’s Educational Equity Act funded the development of materials that were not biased towards one gender or the other. These acts greatly encouraged equality in education; the passing of Title IX legally required schools to provide unbiased admission and equal opportunities to both men and women, giving more women the chance to go to school and earn more educational opportunities. The Women’s Educational Equity Act’s project also reduced discrimination against women, as it provided classrooms with materials that were not sexist, but instead portrayed men and women accurately and in an unbiased manner.

In 1983, Columbia University, a school that was known for being difficult to get into and primarily male-dominated, became the final Ivy League university to open its doors for undergraduate enrollment to women. This was a reflection of how far society had come— women’s education was now more accessible than ever.

Women’s Education in the US Now

By the beginning of the 21st Century, women’s and men’s education were virtually equal in the United States. After the 2005 case Jackson vs. Birmingham Board of Education, in which women were given the ability to petition grievances related to sex-based discrimination under Title IX, education essentially became equal between men and women, at least in a legal sense. However, people all over the nation still push for gender equality within education, especially for those who do not fall between the gender binary. While there is still a long way to go to achieve total equality in education, it is important to both fight for this equality, along with identifying and celebrating the progress that this nation has made in women’s education.

Citations

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https://www.unicef.org/education/girls-education

Girls’ education. (n.d.-b). [Text/HTML]. World Bank. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/girlseducation

Timeline of women’s education. (n.d.). Prezi.Com. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://prezi.com/p/ugwbtgxlzwxl/timeline-of-womens-education/

Timeline of women’s education. (2023). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_women%27s_education&oldid=1136106605

Women’s education – newnham college. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://newn.cam.ac.uk/about/history/womens-education/