Education in the 19th Century

The Rise of Public Education

• 1820’s – Movement for ‘common schools’ began
• By midcentury more than half of white youth were enrolled in schools
  • 90% in primary (elementary) school
  •  Middle and high school will develop and expand later
• By 1850 at least ½ of U.S. women were literate
  • Girls were allowed an elementary education (more accessible to certain groups of girls: race, class, region)
  • Some women could gain enough education for the teaching profession

Female Academies

• By 1820 many female academies or “seminaries” were founded in New England
  • These offered white women a higher education
  • At the start they were not equivalent to men’s colleges
• Between 1830 and 1860 they expanded to other regions
• One goal was to prepare women to teach and prepare them for matrimony

Female Academies

• Reflected rising income and ambition of the middle-class and white ideals
• Focused on educating women to prepare them for matrimony
  • Education appropriate to women’s separate sphere
  • To improve women’s performance as mothers and housekeepers
  • Expand their moral influence in society
  • Increase their social usefulness by preparing them to teach

Catharine Beecher, 1800-1878

• Advocated for women’s education
  • Pushed for women to become teachers
  • Thought women to be naturally made for the profession
• Became a schoolteacher in 1821
• Co-Founder of : The Hartford Female Seminary
• Wrote: Treatise on Domestic Economy
  • A manual on how to be a proper woman
  • Work to standardize domestic life and work

Feminization of Teaching

• Women were thought to be naturally made for the profession
  • more patience
  • kinder
• Young unmarried women would travel to establish schools
• Women teachers were paid much less than men