In the fall of 2001, with posters, tote bags, speakers, and balloons, the University of Pennsylvania launched its celebration of "125 Years of Women at Penn." Exhibits illustrating the experiences of women students appeared around campus and on the Web, while banners trumpeting the contributions of Penn women waved from lightposts. The…

Historical scholarship has traditionally focused on the commonalities uniting Catharine Beecher and Mary Lyon, the two leading antebellum women's educational reformers in New England. This essay shifts that focus by contrasting their educational philosophies and exploring the implications their differences had for the development of American…

During World War II, female students at the University of California, Berkeley--then the most populous undergraduate campus in American higher education--made significant advances in collegiate life. In growing numbers, women enrolled in male-dominated academic programs, including mathematics, chemistry, and engineering, as they prepared for…

The rate of female labor force participation between 1880 and 1930 increased from 15 to 25 percent. Home economics, commercial education, and industrial education were new elements of the curriculum designed for female occupations. Other programs, though coeducational, became sex-typed by the occupational roles with which they were associated. (RM)

Helene Lange worked to obtain equal educational opportunities for women in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century. She tried to improve teacher training for women, enhance the curriculum in girls' high schools, and increase professional training opportunities for women. (AM)

Discusses influences of the Troy Female Seminary, the first permanent institution offering American women a curriculum similar to that of contemporary men's colleges. Also discusses the role of founder Emma Willard in the social history of the nineteenth century and in the diffusion of feminist values. (KC)

Explores the relationship between institutional structures and social values in nineteenth century England by examining features of traditional private girls' schools. Concludes that the reformed institutions served the interests of the feminist movement by answering to the social needs and cultural values of various social groups associated with…

Seventeenth Century Reformation leaders played an important role in establishing universal education in Germany. Their work created new opportunities for the individual, raised social conditions of countless people, and laid the foundation for modern science and learning. (Author/KC)

Discusses the necessity of setting boundaries for a research topic while bridging gaps with information from other disciplines and history of education in other nations. Illustrates the point with the history of women's education in the United States. Includes discussion of the influence of British boys' schools, French boarding schools, and the…