Early Education For Girls

Early Education

Tax-supported schooling for girls began as early as 1767 in New England. It was optional, and some towns proved reluctant. For example, Northampton, Massachusetts was a late adopter because it had many rich families who dominated politics and society; these families did not want to pay taxes to aid poor families. Northampton assessed taxes on all households rather than just those with children, and used the funds to support a grammar school to prepare boys for college. Not until after 1800 did Northampton educate girls with public money. In contrast, the town of Sutton, Massachusetts was diverse in terms of social leadership and religion at an early point in its history. Sutton paid for its schools by means of taxes on households with children only, thereby creating an active constituency in favor of universal education for both boys and girls.

According to many historians, reading and writing were different skills in the colonial era. Schools taught both, but in places without schools, writing was taught mainly to boys and a few privileged girls. While men were expected to handle "worldly affairs" and thereby required both reading and writing skills, women were often only required to learn to read so as to ensure religious scholarship. This educational disparity between reading and writing explains why colonial women often could read but not write or sign their names.

The education of elite women in Philadelphia after 1740 followed the British model developed by the gentry classes during the early 18^th century. Rather than emphasizing ornamental aspects of women's roles, this new model encouraged women to engage in more substantive education, delving into the arts and sciences to further develop their reasoning skills. Education had the capacity to help colonial women secure their elite status by giving them traits their "inferiors" could not easily mimic. Fatherly (2004) examines British and American writings that influenced Philadelphia during the 1740s-1770s and the ways in which Philadelphia women implemented and demonstrated their education.

Higher Education for Women

The first mixed-sex institute of higher education in the United States was Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, which was established in 1833. Mixed-sex classes were admitted to the preparatory department at Oberlin in 1833 and the college department in 1837. The first four women to receive bachelor's degrees in the United States earned them at Oberlin in 1841. Later, in 1862, the first black woman to receive a bachelor's degree (Mary Jane Patterson) also earned it from Oberlin College. Beginning in 1844, Hillsdale College became the second college to admit mixed-sex classes to four-year degree programs.

The University of Iowa became the first coeducational public or state university in the United States in 1855, and for much of the next century, public universities, and land grant universities in particular, would lead the way in mixed-sex higher education. There were also many private coeducational universities founded in the 19^th century, especially west of the Mississippi River. East of the Mississippi, Cornell University admitted its first female student in 1870.

Around the same time, single-sex women's colleges were also appearing. According to Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, and Elizabeth DeBra, "women's colleges were founded during the mid- and late-19^th century in response to a need for advanced education for women at a time when they were not admitted to most institutions of higher education. " Notable examples include the prestigious Seven Sisters, of which Vassar College is now coeducational and Radcliffe College has merged with Harvard University. Other notable women's colleges that have become coeducational include Wheaton College in Massachusetts; Ohio Wesleyan Female College in Ohio; Skidmore College, Wells College, and Sarah Lawrence College in New York state; Goucher College in Maryland; and Connecticut College.