1. Needle & Thread vs. Pencil & Paper
Female Education Expectations Through History

2. Colonial Times Desire for education Most education done at home
Family, Community, Religion
Most education done at home
Benjamin Franklin & Puritan Values
Boys educated (social class)
Future leaders
Girls education was Limited
Reading, writing, math

3. Post-Revolutionary (19th Century)
Thomas Jefferson & Benjamin Rush
Whole nation needed to be educated in order to be strong and have good citizens
Both genders taught the basics
Men expected to continue education
Women use education to teach children
Early education done in the home
Push for school system

4. Common Schools Extension of Family setting Focus on citizenship
Co-ed (Advantages?)
Female teachers for younger students
Focus on citizenship
Gender roles reinforced
Harriet Beecher: Women’s role is as a wife & mother. Occupation is the household.

5. Turn of the Century… Boys & Girls attend school “Seminaries”
Gender roles reinforced in classroom
More girls attending school => Lack of work
“Seminaries”
Committee of Ten (1893)
Technical & Commercial studies (Growing Industry)
Same Education (college bound or not)
Opportunities: Rural vs. Urban

7. World War Effects… Flappers 20th Amendment
Women vote = true citizens
Gender roles temporarily disappear
Teachers, Nurses, Secretaries
WWII = Factories, Military
1,600,000 women joined the workforce between 1914 and 1918
13,000 women enlisted in the US Navy

9. After WWII
Between 1940 and 1945, the female labor force grew by 50 percent.
Most encouraged to return to homes, “women’s work,” or college
Increase in Co-ed Colleges
Educated women start to have new goals for a career

10. 60’s & 70’s Increased college enrollment Feminine Mystique
Fall 1961: 38% female
Fall 1991: 55% female
Feminine Mystique
Social, Political, and Economic involvement
Title IX of the Higher Education Act (1972)
Gender equality at schools (sports, funding, administration)
Economic Changes
Re-defining Gender Roles & Expectations
Change in occupations

11. Education Level of population, 2005

12. Employed women 16 years and older as a percentage of selected occupations: 2007

13. Classrooms Today… More aware of Stereotypes Education Reversal
Still a factor in education (boys encouraged in Math & Science)
Childhood toys
Education Reversal
College Enrollment: 57% female
Males falling behind (higher drop out rates)
Careers encouraged for Females

14. Overcoming the gap… Awareness of stereotypes Positive Encouragement
Confidence through Evidence & Examples
Exposure to different learning styles