Higher Education in Colonial America, a Woman

Higher Education In Colonial America, a woman acquiring higher education was an impossible thing as the masculine gender was given preference in the colleges. The American society was against women education as it was believed that women won't be able to make use of higher education. As a consequence, people held the opinion that if women would be employed in particular fields, it would prove as improper or inequitable to the opposite sex.

It was also believed that women do not have the intellectual capacity to participate in fields of science and technology and therefore, more hurdles were posed in their desire to acquire higher education. Another prevailing belief that prevented women to go to colleges was that their education must be limited to fields that may match their functions and responsibilities as wives and mothers. The belief that they should be educated in separate settings matching their future roles as wives and mothers excluded them at times when domestic concerns prevailed (Eisenmann, 2007).

However, with the wave of feminism in the last decades of the eighteenth century, a number of institutions and valiant women came forward to fight for equal education rights in the United States of America for the feminine sex. The organizations supporting women presented tough arguments regarding the position of women in the society and made it crystal clear that women should be given equal opportunities to acquire higher education as they nurture a whole generation.

They strongly supported the idea that women must be provided the same wide-ranging and useful education that men were offered. With the progression in the twentieth century, the world witnessed stability in the women colleges and their education turned out as publically acceptable (Masteller, 1998). With the pasaage of time and revoltionized thinking in the society, college became a widely-acknowledged and honored place where young women could go and attain higher education (Masteller, 1998).

The society started to accept the fact that women can also read books and their sole purpose in not to look after their families, cooking and sewing etc. To put in simple words, the nineteenth century brought with it a broadminded perception regarding wome and higher education. The women gained freedom to choose whatever college they want to go to thereby diminishing "hostile public opinion, biased medical evaluations, and concerns ranging from preserving femininty to finding a job" (Masteller, 1998).

The historical inequalities vanished and women got opportunities to acquire higher education according to their will as the American academic system started to accept women education as an inevitable element of societal progress (Masteller, 1998). It is exceedingly important to mention the name of Alice Freeman Palmer here as she was among the major figures that encouraged and supported higher education for women in the U.S.A. ("Palmer, Alice Freeman," 2013).

It is important for the society to understand that women and education must not be separated because women like men, deserve to have equal accessibilty, just participation and opportunities to acquire education according to their wishes. When the historical experiences that the women had in the United States of America are reviewed closely, it is a crystal clear observation that the expectations for boys and girls were rather dissimilar as far as education was concerned.

In times gone by, girls were raised with the sole purpose of making them competent enough to discharge duties in limited and certain roles like teachers, nurses etc. However, the opportunities for women increased in.