One Woman's Quest To Obtain Higher Education

The main objective of the early education of females was to create women who would be educated enough to be better mothers and shape the character of their future offspring (“One Woman's Quest to Provide Higher Education for Women,” 342). That was likely to be based on the thought that such education would increase the chances of producing morally good children, refined girls, and educated boys, who would grow up to be ideal members of society. Based on those principals I think early female education would have been primarily for girls from families with some money and good reputations, or parents who were more free thinking. I would think that girls who didn’t fit that mold (low social or financial status) were unlikely to be highly represented

Women who were too educated would be less appealing to men as marriage material and good mothers, viewed as less ladylike, and influence them to desire something more than just being homemakers (“One Woman's Quest to Provide Higher Education for Women,” 342). It could also ruin their likelihoods of marriage. At that time women were meant to marry well, fulfill mostly domestic duties, and to support their husbands and children as good role models, not to pursue their own intellectual interests or to be the ones to the make rational decisions in a marriage.

2. In the 19th century what prevented most working or educated women from pursuing careers?

In the 1800’s, if educated women wished to pursue a career that would have been hindered by sexism for women doing so, since their widely accepted main purposes were to be a good wife/homemaker and mother. Marriage and motherhood would have been the end of most women’s aspirations (“One Woman's Quest to Provide Higher Education for Women,” 342). Their duties were to raise upstanding future generations, and manage a home, and the thought at the time was that how would a woman do what she was meant to if she worked outside the home. Women were also not viewed as having great intellect, unlike

She also made sure that her female students remained ladylike and didn’t damage their womanliness (“One Woman's Quest to Provide Higher Education for Women,” 343). This would presumably ensure that they were still considered more than suitable marriage material by retaining their feminine qualities, while also owning educated minds. She also helped opened the doors for women to have professions in