Women in the STEM Fields

Women’s education in the United States made huge strides during the Progressive Era. However, along with those strides came negative reactions from not only men but women as well. These second generation women started moving away from their expected nurturing professions and instead started going into male dominated professions. Some of these professions were doctors and lawyers, just to name a few. Due to these career changes, women were required to have bachelor’s degrees and training.

Judith Sargent Murray’s On the Equality of the Sexes reveals the struggles women had in the 17th-18th centuries when it came to equal education opportunities. Women were expected to become people of domestication while men had many opportunities to expand their minds and be ambitious, and be leaders. Women were expected to focus on taking care of their family, not to have minds of their own. They wanted change.

In early America, women were expected to take care of the household and of the children. However, writers such as Anne Bradstreet and Judith Sargent Murray wanted to emphasize the importance of education for women. The two texts by these authors that will be discussed are the poem, “The Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet and the essay, “Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of Self-Contemplacency, especially in Female Bosoms,” By Judith Sargent Murray. A theme seen prominently throughout both texts is fairer treatment of women through education. Although both women do believe in opportunity for women in education, Bradstreet focuses more on the idea that women should have more acceptance in the intellectual world by men while Murray however, emphasizes the importance of women to be raised properly which resulted in them understanding their self-worth.

One women that beat the odds, and did what no woman has done before was Elizabeth Blackwell.  “She was the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree and she helped to break down prejudice against women in medicine” (Blackwell, Elizabeth). Elizabeth was born on February 3, 1821,

In the second half of the colonial time period in North America, ever-nearing the American Revolution in 1775, there were much fewer roles for women. While they still dealt with and controlled everything having to do with childbirth and the family, their professional lives were downgraded. Their three main jobs were to watch the children, encourage faith in the house, and be subordinate to men (Dunklee 2). As education was becoming slightly more widespread, only men were taking advantage of higher education, meaning they were the ones who would receive the jobs. Even if a lady did happen to be wealthy enough and come from a powerful enough family to get higher education, they were not socially accepted into having jobs. Women were reduced to only having what was seen as small tasks, caretaking, sewing and writing (WIC 2). All of the jobs available were chores to benefit the individual family, not be put out into society. Even the more creative exercises such as writing poetry, were done for the woman’s own benefit as a creative outlet, not as something to be put out into the world as it was for many men (Bloch). The roles available to women had evolved to include very few options, many of which weren’t even to be recognized by

She soon picked up an interest in medicine, and looked into becoming a physician. After being rejected by many medical schools, she was accepted into the Geneva Medical College in 1847. Male students and faculty were asked to vote on her acceptance, and most voted yes as a joke. Blackwell continued on to graduate from the school, and in 1849 became the first woman to receive her medical degree in the United States. Ten years after her acceptance, with the help of her colleagues, she opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857. Blackwell had previously attended the Women’s Rights Convention of 1850 in Worcester, where she advocated for women in the medical field. Although Elizabeth Blackwell did not spend the majority of her time directly fighting for women’s rights, she provided a stepping stone. She was voted into the Geneva Medical College jokingly, and proved that women were more intelligent than they were thought to be, and that they could be physicians or whatever they put their mind to. This set a precedent for the medical world known today, where many of the top doctors are female.

Elizabeth Blackwell In the early 1800’s, becoming a doctor was extremely challenging, especially if you were a woman. This was mostly because female doctors were unheard of at the time. That is until Elizabeth Blackwell decided to pursue a medical degree in 1839. It took her over five years to save up enough money to even think about applying for medical school and even then no one would accept her because she was a woman.

There was another right, not pertaining to voting or working, that is just as if not more important that women started demanding to have. The right over her own body. One of the biggest of these issues was a woman getting to decide when and if she wanted to get pregnant, though many fought for this right early into the twentieth century, legal birth control was not available to even married woman until the second half of the century and abortions until very late into the century were seen as a criminal, punishable offense. Though information was accessible early on, it was obvious the government didn’t want women using any birth control measures. Many more conservative citizens argued “Give a woman power over her own body, and who knows what might happen,” it was believed that giving woman the power to make this choice would through off the “natural” power balance, with the father at the top of the household making any and all decisions. Moreover, the protection of woman after being sexually assaulted, was all but none existent. Police, jurors, and judges were all quick to try and make the woman admit she had consented; police were also very much willing to turn a blind eye to domestic abuse. It wasn’t until nearly the turn of the twenty first century that this became known as rape, and was punishable by law.

“The subject of the Education of Women of the higher classes is one which has undergone singular fluctuations in public opinions” (Cobbe 79). Women have overcome tremendous obstacles throughout their lifetime, why should higher education stand in their way? In Frances Power Cobbe’s essay “The Education of Women,” she describes how poor women, single women, and childless wives, deserve to share a part of the human happiness. Women are in grave need of further improvements in their given condition. Cobbe suggests that a way to progress these improvements manifests in higher education, and that this will help further steps in advance. Cobbe goes on to say that the happiest home, most grateful husband, and the most devoted children came from a woman, Mary Sommerville, who surpassed men in science, and is still studying the wonders of God’s creations. Cobbe has many examples within her paper that shows the progression of women as a good thing, and how women still fulfill their duties despite the fact that they are educated. The acceptance of women will be allowed at the University of New England because women should be able to embrace their abilities and further their education for the benefit of their household, their lives, and their country.

"On February 3, 1821, a baby girl was born in the village of Counterslip, near the prosperous city of Bristol in the west of England"(Boyer Binns 1). This baby girl would grow up to be a role model and forever change the world. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first of many female doctors. She was a role model to women all over the world. She was determined and would not settle to get anything less than what she deserved. Elizabeth Blackwell is a role model who never stopped fighting the unfair and prejudice world.

“None of us know what we are capable of until we are tested.” - Elizabeth Blackwell. When Elizabeth was young, she had lots of siblings. Elizabeth was born on February 3, 1821. Her father wanted them all to have a successful life and send them off to college. Lots of her siblings died while they were on their way to New York. She wanted to go to many colleges, but only one of them accepted her. It was the Geneva Medical School in New York. Elizabeth was the first woman to get a medical degree. Some of the things you will be learning are what did they do to become famous, why did it change things, and why is it important.

During the early 1800's women were stuck in the Cult of Domesticity. Women had been issued roles as the moral keepers for societies as well as the nonworking house-wives for families. Also, women were considered unequal to their male companions legally and socially. However, women’s efforts during the 1800’s were effective in challenging traditional intellectual, social, economical, and political attitudes about a women’s place in society.

Elizabeth Blackwell. Her journey started when she took action of being the first woman to graduate Medical School. Elizabeth showed others that women too could become physicians. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell is firm in her standpoint of women being apart of employed physicians. She is to have said, “A blank wall of social and professional antagonism faces the woman physician that forms a situation of singular and painful loneliness, leaving her without support, respect or professional counsel.”

Elizabeth Blackwell was an inspiring, dedicated, hard-working woman. Because of her willingness to never give up and pursue her dream to become a doctor, she was an important role model in many young girl’s lives. According to Elizabeth Flexner in her book, Century of Struggle: the Women's Rights Movement in the United States, “once fairly launched on her endeavor, the challenge of overcoming the tremendous obstacles in her path outweighed all other considerations: ‘The idea of winning a doctor’s degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me’” (Flexner 110). With this, Elizabeth became the world’s first female doctor.

What are the Discrepancies between men and women in the STEM field? “Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science? by Eileen Pollack, Closing the Pay Gap in STEM Fields Starts With Education by Katie Valentine and Study Finds Bias Causing ‘Exodus’ of Women from Science Careers by Liz Colville provide great examples on the discrepancies between men and women in the stem career work field. Although people may think differently assumptions that women do not like taking upon larger jobs, pay differences and that women don’t like to be a part of the math and science field are the main discrepancies between men and women in the STEM field.