Coeducation Movement in the U.S.

Coeducation Movement in the U.S. In 1960s:

The concern on how to educate men and women together is an issue with a long and apparent tumultuous history or background. This history had been associated with issues of morality in children's morality, equality between men and women, and higher academic achievement for both sexes. As this issue became debatable in the United States during the 19th Century, it generated numerous arguments between policymakers, politicians, and the general public. During this period, conservatives campaigned for separate schooling for males and females while liberal advocated for coeducation to an extent that they are regarded as the champions of it (Rury, n.d.).

In the 18th Century, coeducation started to appear on a prevalent basis in English-speaking regions in North America. This contributed to the emergence of coeducation movements that can be attributed to Reformation-inspired religious dissention and the changing life situations in a frontier society. Notably, the initial coeducation institutions were founded by certain religious groups such as Methodists, abolitionists, and Congregationalists (Goldin & Katz, 2011, 383). In addition to also being founded by other institutions advocating for equality, they were disproportionately founded in new regions of the young country.

While New England was the first region to practice coeducation, the practice of admitting both boys and girls in school together perhaps originated from the increasing cases of female church membership. This practice was also attributed to the practical requirements of getting adequate number of children to support the schools in an environment that was thinly inhabited. Actually, the formal education of women started in mid 19th Century and was intimately connected to the idea that the society had a suitable role for females to assume in life ("The Roles of Women's Colleges, Coeducation," n.d.).

Even though the concept and practice of coeducation spread rapidly in the United States in the 196s, the inclusion of females in high schools in America was characterized with several legal challenges that had to be overcome. One of the major challenges for advocates of coeducation was the lack of legislation to protect students from gender-based discrimination. Actually, before the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, students were largely unprotected from discrimination based on sex (Madigan, 2009, 11). Therefore, advocates of coeducation had to deal with the challenge of lack of regulations to protect students from discrimination. The lack of such legislation was attributed to the fact that many institutions mainly enrolled male students.

The second major challenge for advocates of coeducation in the 1960s was that the existing legal framework and policies promoted single-gender education in which most boys attended dame schools in America. Since these schools were primarily for boys in order to prepare them for town schools, the educational institutions beyond these schools were exclusive to wealthy families, private, and isolated by sex. Coeducation supporters has to deal with this challenge because the existing legal framework did not allow girls to attend dame schools and mainly focused on preparing boys for admission to single-sex town education institutions. Moreover, when girls were eventually admitted to dame schools, they attended at different times of the day than their male counterparts or attended when boys were absent.

Generally, the major legal barrier that had to be overcome to include females in high schools in the United States was the lack of gender equality regulations and policies. As a result, co-educational schooling was regarded as a means of promoting and achieving gender equality in the country (Jackson & Ivinson, 2013). This would be achieved by not only providing equal opportunities to boys and girls but through gender awareness by teachers.