Women's College Education in the Past Two Centuries: (LARGE PRINT EDITION)

This book describes the education of women from colonial time to the present -from a time when women couldn't go to college to a time when the majority of college students are women, and women are replacing men in jobs that require a higher education. The early part of this history is dominated by misogynists, who based their beliefs partly on the bible and partly on their desire to keep women at home as wives and mothers. By the middle 1800s, women made some gains and began to open women's colleges. These gains were followed by the establishment of coeducational schools and conversion of some men's colleges to coeducational ones. The book also surveys the types of jobs open to educated women at different times in the past two centuries. As the types of jobs diversified, the educational programs for women became broader. Now there is essentially no difference between the curricula taken by women and men. One important difference between the treatment of women and men is that colleges acted as surrogate parents to women students. This concept of ""in loco parentis"" caused schools to establish rules such as curfews and dress codes. These regulations have also disappeared now. The book emphasizes the effects of two important events on women's education. The Second World War put women into jobs that they had never had before, and many women were unwilling to return to their traditional roles as stay-at-home wives and mothers. The various ""revolutions"" of the 1960s, plus the marketing of the contraceptive pill, led women to demand more freedom in both educational opportunities and employment options. In addition to surveying the history of women's education, the book contains a large number of humorous stories. They include the reactions of male-dominated college faculties to women students, the reactions of women students to rules derived from the concept of ""in loco parentis,"" and the interactions between female and male students.