Women have seen their roles shift dramatically in education over the years. One of the movements in the United States, in Europe, and around the world has been to push for more access to education for women. In fact, some have made this a centerpiece to more than just their education policy. Rather, they have made the availability of education for women the cornerstone to their poverty alleviation plan, too. It has not always been this way, of course. There was a time when women were not allowed to go to school at all, a fact that has been eviscerated in almost every country on earth.
There have been times in history where women were forced to learn different subjects than men, being taught home skills rather than the education that would allow them to access jobs. On top of that, women have long been held out of high-level teaching positions, including professor positions and jobs in university administration. This, too, has been shifting. Women still have a ways to go to bridge the gap in equality, but the numbers of women attending graduate programs are rising, leading to more opportunities in the workplace, as well. This movement upward for women has not been instant. Rather, it has been the result of a slow climb that has come as women’s rights activists have pushed for more education for women.
Throughout much of ancient history, trends suggest that women were not given wide access to education, to the extent education existed during those times. There is evidence that during the Middle Ages, girl were not allowed to go to school. This 16th century tradition was replaced by the opportunity for young women from very good schools to get some training in things like sewing and homemaking. They were not allowed to learn the skills of civics, math, and writing like their male counterparts. The 17th century brought a development in the opportunities for women, but these were still mostly limited to the girls of very rich families. Boarding schools were started, and young girls were able to learn things like music and writing. It is critical that these schools were free of male influence. Young girls were then not allowed to go to school with boys, a tradition that continued for many years on end.
The early 1800s brought the first real educational opportunities for women in Great Britain and the US alike. The English government decided to give grants to many church-based schools, which provided education for women. More schools popped up not only in the cities, but also in the rural areas, providing access for women who might not have come from an affluent family. In addition to that, women first gained access to colleges in the United States. In the 1840s, the first women were admitted to Oberlin College. This was a major step forward, especially when the women were able to gain their degrees.
The 1900s brought on the first opportunities for women to gain real opportunities in higher education. While some women had been able to graduate from colleges and universities in the UK and in the US, there was no broad opportunity for women to learn in grad schools or in other settings of true higher education. 1919 was an important year for the movement. This brought along the Sex Disqualification Removal Act. This law was designed to provide women with the opportunity to access the highest professions in society, including lawyering, dentistry, and other fields. Women in the United States had been granted access to law school just after the end of the Civil War in 1865, but there was not broad acceptance of their ability to get these degrees until well into the 20th century.
One of the major setbacks for American women came with World War II. Just as women had been able to access more opportunities, the Great Depression made it more difficult for these women to afford school, and World War II hoisted many responsibilities on the backs of women. All of a sudden, women were required to work in many male jobs while the men were off at war. They were maintaining the factories and ensuring that the US was able to keep moving forward. They were also taking care of children and the home, making it hard for them to focus on educational opportunities. The post-War boom in the 1950s brought about more interest among American women in more education.
In modern times, things have been shifting more quickly. 2016 marked the first time in the history of the US that the majority of students in law schools were female. In total, 51% of the people in law schools in the US currently are women. While some other fields—such as business programs and computer science programs—are still mostly dominated by men, there are more opportunities for women now than ever before. The same has been true in the UK. Women have been given more access to scholarship opportunities and the ability to advance through the educational ranks. They have become a fixture in some of the best universities in the UK, including Oxford and Cambridge. At the primary school levels, women are no longer taught in separate schools from boys. While there are some private schools where boys and girls still go to school separately, this is not the norm and it is not the policy in much of the Western world. Gone is the idea that women are distracting to boys who are trying to focus on doing the hard work required by school. These are all important things in the movement forward for women in education.
One of the more important movements in the last decade or two has been the opportunity for more women to teach at the university and graduate school levels. Women have long been given prominence in primary school education. In fact, teaching is one of the most popular professions for women, along with nursing. Today, a higher percentage of women are getting tenure and being allowed to teach subjects like math and science, which have generally been reserved for male professors (Morley, 2013). This movement within the world of education has opened that world up much more to women and has made the educational experience for women much better overall.
While much has been done in the Western world to promote the education of women, there is still the remaining problem of some parts of the Eastern and Middle Eastern worlds. In Afghanistan, for instance, the Taliban has long bombed girls’ schools and murdered young women who wanted to get more education. Born in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban as she tried to attend school (Yousafzai, 2013). She went on to become a champion for the rights of young women in the country and around the world.
She has led efforts to make schools more open in Afghanistan for young women while also advocating for the removal of some restrictions on female schooling in places like Saudi Arabia, where the government still holds many restrictions on women in general. These places are showing improvement, bringing to mind the possibility that women around the globe could be educated more fully in the years to come while highlighting the tremendous growth that has been made in the Western world on the female educational front.
