The early nineteenth century provided a social context that allowed women to first enter the realm of American higher education. Political, religious, and cultural trends of the day indicated a need for educated women. This article examines these trends with particular emphasis on the notion of republican motherhood, a concept considered essential in the new American nation (Rouse, 1995). Institutional examples conclude this article, providing readers with a framework for the early mission of women’s higher education.

When Puritan colonists founded Harvard College and initiated the tradition of American higher education in the early seventeenth century, several social and religious factors influenced the settlements in colonial New England. Frederick Rudolph (1990) writes that the beginning of Harvard in the colonial wilderness was a triumph for colonists who had been persecuted in England for “unable to set the world straight as Englishmen in England, the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts intended to set it straight as Englishmen in the New World” (p. 5). Since Puritan society would have leaders, clergy members, and educators, a college was necessary to teach men who could perform the necessary duties of these positions. While Harvard was the first such institution of higher education in the American colonies, others were founded to follow the same purpose throughout the colonial era (Rudolph).

Societal factors during the colonial period allowed men the opportunity to develop their moral character, educate their minds, and hone skills which would benefit their life’s work during their time as students at early American colleges and universities. These male students enjoyed this privilege for nearly 200 years before women were permitted to receive a degree from a college or university. Religious, historical, social and political factors of seventeenth century Puritan New England indicated that colonists would desire a college modeled after British universities to educate its men in colonial America. Just as the historical context of the 1600s was critical to the beginnings of higher education in the American nation, events and influences of the early nineteenth century supplied the catalysts for women to be introduced into the arena of higher education alongside their male counterparts.

This article provides a brief glimpse of some factors influencing a major change in the history of higher education. Student affairs professionals and educators spend a great deal of time discussing current social issues and their impact on the academy and its students. To complete this discussion, educators must also acknowledge some of the paradigm shifts that have occurred historically in higher education, as well as the manner in which these shape the academy today. Attempting to offer this acknowledgement, the article presents specific institutional examples and issues surrounding the establishment of these schools for women.

The social context of the early 1800s provided the reasons for such a drastic change in the institution of higher education after 200 years of existence as a strictly male dominion. Religious, social, and political factors of the day each played a role in allowing women to enter the realm of higher education in this nation. The fervor of religious revivalism, the developing governmental concept of the American republic, and the ideals of the educated, virtuous, and moral citizen within the newly-formed nation each contributed to female students ultimately gaining access to the educational opportunities which had been denied to women for so many years. These social factors influenced the founding and work of such early institutions in women’s higher education as Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary, Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, and the Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, which was the first actual women’s college.

Several political and religious reasons existed for the development of a social context in which higher education for women established itself in the early 1800s. One of the strongest of these political reasons involved the democratic ideals of the newly-formed United States. Seeking and gaining independence from England, Americans adamantly defended their right to live in a republic in which the people, rather than a monarch, ruled and governed their society. In such a republic citizens decided upon the laws to which all adhere. This concept places a significant responsibility upon the people of a nation (Brinkley, 1997). As Alan Brinkley explains in the American history text The Unfinished Nation (1997), a successful republican government hinges upon the moral values and ethical behavior of its citizens. The American nation would flourish “if the population consisted of sturdy, independent property owners imbued with civic virtue” (Brinkley, p. 136). In the context of the new America, the notions of civic virtue and responsible citizenship encompassed such factors as a fierce personal independence, attention to civic matters, and adherence to the ideals of democracy such as equality and self-government (Rudolph, 1990). According to the civic thought of the day, the moral citizen embodied all of these character traits. The more American citizens that possessed a strong sense of this character and virtue, the stronger the new republic became (Rose, 1995).

The idea of civic virtue imbedded itself in the character of the early American republic. The developing notion of republican motherhood found its roots in this concept of civic virtue and the moral citizen. Within the family of the early 1800s, the mother’s primary responsibility was to educate her children to be citizens exemplifying a high standard of moral character. In the republican United States, this maternal position of moral educator held even greater significance than ever before. Free from the aristocratic rule of the British monarchy, the democratic American republic provided that any white male citizen, from the very poorest to the most affluent, could participate in the leadership and government of the nation. Americans thought the mother’s role was imperative in ensuring that boys grew into men possessing the civic virtue and strong moral character to perform the role of a responsible citizen (Rudolph, 1990). Republican motherhood was considered extremely patriotic, for women who dedicated themselves to teaching virtue within the family contributed to the moral character of the nation (Rouse, 1995).

Although many Americans today might view the early nineteenth-century concept of republican motherhood as one of many components perpetuating a patriarchal society, the beginnings of women’s higher education developed from this social ideal of motherhood. The post-Revolutionary years saw a great deal of debate over the issue of women’s education. Benjamin Rush, Emma Willard, and others “articulated the discourse of republicanism and civic virtue, linking it with the ideology of literacy and with women’s roles” (Hobbs, 1995, p. 10). Since women were to be the mothers of the future leaders of the nation, they also needed to be educated in order to pass this knowledge to their sons. This concept was one of the strongest arguments during the early nineteenth century for granting women access to higher education in the United States.

The religious movement of the Second Great Awakening accompanied this pervasive ideal of republican motherhood in the early 1800s. This period in America’s religious history saw a great deal of revivalism and evangelicalism throughout the nation as both Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church promoted Christianity and sought converts. The movement emphasized perfectionism as religious leaders preached that this quality was attainable not only within individuals, but in a society as well. This notion contributed to an idea of a democratic, religious society (Gaustad, 1987). Undoubtedly the national emphasis in the early nineteenth century on civic virtue and the moral citizen perpetuated this ideal of perfectionism.

While another wave of religious movements concluded 60 years before the Second Great Awakening began in 1801, the revivalism of the early nineteenth century contained several factors which were unknown in previous revivals in the United States. The evangelicalism of the early 1800s responded to the rise of rationalism and the belief by revivalists that this thinking de-emphasized the role of God in the beliefs of these rational thinkers. With this response, however, revivalists failed to restore religion in America as it had existed before the Revolution. The Second Great Awakening perpetuated newer philosophies regarding Christianity in mainstream American thinking. Prior to the Revolution, many religious Americans subscribed to a belief in predestination. Since fewer Americans believed in this doctrine in the early 1800s, religious thought emphasized the notion that one could perfect oneself in order to gain salvation. During the Second Great Awakening, many American Christians came to believe that individuals could acquire God’s blessings and live an eternal life through faith and good works on Earth (Brinkley, 1997).

Another factor which greatly differentiated the Second Great Awakening from previous religious movements, and would hold significance in the progress in women’s education, was the role which women played in this revivalism. Many more women than men converted to Christian denominations during the Second Great Awakening. Two primary reasons exist for this influx of women into religious society. As the United States became more industrialized and certain work such as spinning and weaving moved out of the home, women lost some of their ability to contribute to the family economy. A woman’s work in the church replaced some traditional duties that were removed from the repertoire of domestic tasks. In addition, other women converted because their chances of marriage had diminished due to the fact that many American men moved westward in search of the new frontier. Women in this situation viewed the church as an institution to which they could devote their lives (Brinkley, 1997).

Ultimately, the forces of this religious revivalism and the political and social context of the early American republic combined to produce one of the greatest surges in reform efforts in American history. This strong sense of social change within the United States perpetuated a context ripe for the progress in women’s education during the first half of the nineteenth century. Education, temperance, and child welfare were just a few of the causes that developed into reform movements (Brinkley, 1997). This era of reform became “an American Revolution all over again, only this time not in politics but religion. The boundless optimism of Enlightenment captains had passed, undiluted, into the hands of Evangelical troops” (Gaustad, 1987, p. 122).

Although the first women’s college, now known as Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, was chartered in 1836, Troy Female Seminary, founded in Troy, New York in 1821 by Emma Willard, was the first institution for women to offer a curriculum that paralleled the course of study at men’s colleges (Weatherford, 1994). Like many other Americans in her day, Willard strongly believed that a mother’s position was crucial in forming the moral character of a child and that women needed to be educated in order to perform this role. Arguing that the future of the republic depended upon its educated women, Willard asked for public money to support the seminary, espoused that women were able to study any subject intellectually, and requested that women be trained for a profession of teaching (Scott). While other female seminaries had been established prior to the one at Troy, Willard’s institution was unique in the fact that school officials requested public funding and that the seminary trained women professionally (Scott, 1988).

The social context of the 1820s greatly influenced the academic mission of Troy Female Seminary. Willard extended the notions of republican motherhood and civic virtue to encompass the training of teachers at Troy. Just as mothers played a crucial role in raising their children to be virtuous citizens, educators of the day agreed that primary education was equally significant in the development of moral character. At the time there were not enough male teachers to staff schools for children; thus, Willard developed a curriculum to train women to be teachers. In doing so, this profession became open to women (Scott, 1988).

In establishing Troy, Emma Willard not only provided an educational opportunity for women, but she also empowered seminary students to educate others throughout the United States. With missionary-like zeal characteristic of the period of the Second Great Awakening, teachers educated at Troy Female Seminary scattered across the country to teach in primary schools. Alarmed at the low literacy rate in the American West, Catharine Beecher founded schools in that region of the country (Boas, 1971). Women from Troy headed to the American South to teach in academies and primary schools throughout that area. Undoubtedly, Troy’s influence contributed to the opening of a female seminary in the late 1820s in South Carolina (Scott, 1988).

Mary Lyon, who founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary on November 8, 1837 in South Hadley, Massachusetts, was one of Troy’s graduates who took Emma Willard’s message greatly to heart. She had a great interest in missionary work, and she started and served as the first president of the Mount Holyoke Missionary Association (Edmunds, 1988). Perhaps no other educational institution of the day better exemplified the influences of republican motherhood, civic virtue, and the Second Great Awakening than Mount Holyoke. Mount Holyoke sought to attract women who would dedicate themselves to Christian service through teaching (Horowitz, 1993). In her work entitled Alma Mater, Helen Horowitz quotes Mary Lyon as writing, “in laying out the minutia of the plan, great care is taken to furnish points of attraction to those who would gladly become benevolent, self-denying teachers, should the cause of Christ demand it” (1993, pp. 18-19).

Lyon’s concept of the Christian teacher complemented the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening. This Christian teacher fostered the notion of the development of civic virtue and moral citizenship through the influence of motherhood and teaching. Anne Carey Edmunds’ 1987 work, A Memory Book: Mount Holyoke College 1837-1987, commemorates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the women’s institution and states:

Within the religious context of the Second Great Awakening and the republican nation’s mission of manifest destiny, Mary Lyon’s school responded to the needs of mid-nineteenth century America: it provided educated mothers who could train their sons, teachers who could travel to the frontiers of the expanding country, and women who both as helpmates and teachers could carry the message of the millennium to other parts of the world. (1987, p. 47)

Thus, at Mount Holyoke, one sees the social influences and pervasive values of the early 1800s exemplified in the mission of the institution.

Alumnae of Mount Holyoke fulfilled Mary Lyon’s desired mission. Young graduates espoused the values of Christianity, education, and literacy to Persian harems and Native American tribes (Hobbs, 1995). The Cherokee Female Seminary, in what is now the state of Oklahoma, was modeled after Mount Holyoke. This may be largely attributed to the fact that many of the wives of American missionaries to the Cherokee were alumnae of Lyon’s seminary (Mihesuah, 1995). Mount Holyoke women founded and taught at seminaries and schools all over the United States, spreading education to the illiterate and allowing women nationwide to obtain a teaching degree (Edmunds, 1987).

A contemporary institution to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the Georgia Female College located in Macon, Georgia, received its charter in 1836 and began educating women in 1839. Today this institution is known as Wesleyan College, reflecting its Methodist heritage. The founding of Wesleyan was greatly influenced by the female seminary movement (Akers, 1976). While other institutions had offered a curriculum similar to a men’s college, Wesleyan College was the first women’s institution to equate itself in name and title to its counterpart colleges for male students (Akers).

The social and religious context of the 1830s affected the origins of Wesleyan. Just as Emma Willard and Mary Lyon espoused the virtues of republican motherhood, Wesleyan’s founders recognized the role of the mother as chief educator in the family (Akers, 1976). The very process of naming the institution a college was influenced by the revivalism occurring during the era of the Second Great Awakening. In June of 1835, citizens of central Georgia experienced a religious fervor of a large interdenominational revival. During that time the citizens of Macon were planning to open a female seminary to complement the already-constructed male academy in the city (Akers). Realizing the popularity of the revival and “seizing the hour, Elijah Sinclair, a highly regarded Methodist minister, proposed to the citizens that they build instead of a seminary a college for women equal to the colleges for men” (Akers, p. 9). The movement for a female college gained a great deal of momentum over the next few months. On January 13, 1836, the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church approved a plan for both Emory College, a men’s institution to be located in Oxford, Georgia, which would later become a university and move to Atlanta, and the first college for women in the world to be established in Macon, Georgia (Akers).

In addition to being a college rather than a female seminary, Wesleyan was also distinct in another manner from the institutions of Troy and Mount Holyoke. While women established these two seminaries, Wesleyan College’s founders were men, most of whom served as Methodist ministers. Duncan Greene Campbell, the principal of a female academy in Wilkes County, Georgia, first proposed a bill for the establishment of a female seminary to the Georgia legislature in 1825. Although the bill did not pass, this proposal undoubtedly increased Georgian support for reforms and progress in women’s education. Thus, in 1836 the Georgia legislature passed the bill for founding Wesleyan College, and the institution opened its doors in 1839 with Dr. George Foster Pierce, a Methodist minister, as its first president (Akers, 1976). Although Wesleyan was a pioneer institution in the history of women’s education, the college did not name its first female president until 1997. Yet, the fact that the founding of Wesleyan occurred under the movement of male Methodist ministers testifies to the era of progress and the age of reform fostered by the Second Great Awakening and the political context of the new American republic. This paradigm shift would permanently alter American higher education, allowing for further changes and reforms in years to come.

Troy Female Seminary, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, and Wesleyan College pioneered efforts to give women initial access to the same American higher education from which men benefited since the founding of Harvard in 1636. The political, social, and religious situation of the United States in the early nineteenth century provided the context in which these efforts originated and flourished. In an egalitarian democracy in which all men theoretically could become government officials, moral and virtuous character was considered essential for leadership within the republic. Due to this pervasive notion in the new American nation, citizens placed significance on educating the mothers of boys who would mature to become national, state, and local leaders. The Second Great Awakening accompanied this political context. With this revival of religion came a further emphasis on virtue and morality as more women than ever converted to Christianity.

This shift in the religious and political paradigms of the early 1800s resulted in an age of reform that addressed numerous issues, including education. Evidence of this social context appears not only in the establishment of the three women’s institutions, but ultimately in the mission of these seminaries and colleges. Just as the colonial situation was appropriate for the founding of Harvard in 1636, the character of the early nineteenth-century American republic provided an impetus for significant changes in higher education for women. A close review of the factors that surrounded the founding of women’s higher education and its mission reminds student affairs educators that social influences have dictated educational changes throughout American history. Such a review grants educators a foundation against which they can measure current changes and trends in education and society. Educational reforms can never truly be separated from the surrounding social environment, nor can these changes truly occur apart from historical influences. Educators would be wise to examine both current and past factors surrounding issues in the American academy.

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Mihesuah, D.A. (1995). Let us strive earnestly to value education aright: Cherokee female seminarians as leaders of a changing culture. In Hobbs, C. (Ed.), Nineteenth-century women learn to write (pp. 103-119). Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.

Rose, J.E. (1995). Conduct books for women, 1830-1860: A rationale for women’s conduct and domestic role in america. In Hobbs, C. (Ed.), Nineteenth-century women learn to write (pp. 37-58). Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.

Rouse, P.J. (1995). Cultural models of womanhood and female educators: Practices of colonization and resistance. In Hobbs, C. (Ed.), Nineteenth-century women learn to write (pp. 230-247). Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.

Rudolph, F. (1990). The American college and university: A history (Rev. ed.). Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press.

Scott, A.F. (1988). The ever-widening circle: The diffusion of feminist values from the Troy Female Seminary, 1822-1872. In B.E. McClellen & W.J. Reese (Eds.), The social history of American education (pp. 137-160). Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Weatherford, D. (1994). American women’s history: An A to Z of people, organizations, issues, and events. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Anne M. Claxton graduated from Emory University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in English and Italian Studies. She is currently a second-year HESA student and serves as the Graduate Assistant in the Office of Alumni Relations.