WOMEN IN EDUCATION

Wartime Changes

World War II opened up many new possibilities for women. Expanded opportunities and better-paying jobs meant that they no longer would be forced into the stereotypical roles of teachers, secretaries, or housewives—while men were in the military, at least. War industry allowed them to be blue-collar workers, such as welders and taxi drivers, as well as business employees. Given the opportunity, women left education in droves. Colleges were quick to understand the implications of having more women on career tracks, and many developed curricula tailored for women.

Changing Curricula

Before the war, women's colleges prepared their graduates for marriage and for home. Courses developed included child development, hygiene, home economics, and decorating. In 1924 Vassar College instituted a curriculum specially designed to educate women along the lines of what were supposed to be their chief interests and responsibilities: motherhood and the home. In contrast, with the American entrance into the war Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute enrolled its first female student; the Curtiss-Wright Company sent eight hundred women to college to learn engineering; and other companies began hiring female chemists, lawyers, and brokers.

Harvard Sets the Pace

Separation of the sexes had been the norm in institutions of higher learning in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century, but women's responses to the opportunities provided by the war established that they were capable workers, and many wanted the option of entering or remaining in the workforce after the fighting ceased and the men returned home. In the late 1940s Harvard University became the first Ivy League coeducational school when it allowed female juniors, seniors, and graduate students from Radcliffe College to attend classes. In 1947 the arrangement with Radcliffe was made permanent. Other colleges and universities around the country followed, although initially there were some problems.

Resistance to the Plan

There was much resistance to the coeducational trend. The belief that fraternization between students of different genders would hamper education caused protests. Students and professors alike did not want to have professors act as chaperons. Surprisingly, most progress for women in higher education was made in the southern states at schools such as Florida State University. Most degrees earned by women were in education, English, home economics, and business.

Success

As women and men adjusted to coeducation, states realized that there was little need for separate institutions for them, especially since coeducational universities reduced the need for duplicate programs when colleges were segregated by sex. Thus, with the growth of women's earning potential came the beginnings of the demise of most state-supported schools for single-gender education.

POOR PENMANSHIP

By 1947 most schools no longer taught separate classes in traditional penmanship. Students were taught to print but not to write in cursive. There were no more flourishes, curlicues, or arm exercises. In Seattle, for instance, a new penmanship supervisor was not appointed after the old one died in 1945. In Los Angeles applicants for teaching positions were no longer required to pass a handwriting test.

Sources:

William Henry Chafe, The American Woman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972);

John D. Pulliam, History of Education in America (Columbus, Ohio: Merrill, 1982).