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Women's Education During The Progressive Era Essay

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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. Because of this, women’s colleges were hit with heavy backlash in the early 1900s. “Many male educators and doctors viewed the lengthening lines of candidates in the secondary schools with alarm. They believed the women’s colleges were institutions for the promotion of celibacy, producing a disappearing class of intellectual women who were not marrying and hence were committing race …show more content…

It was only somewhat acceptable for unmarried women to go to school and have a job away from home to help out their families. Their curriculum consisted of subjects to help better them as housewives. “Women faculty and students argued for the adoption of courses on settlement work, socialism, sociology, and particularly sanitary science, or home economics, which was not always a nuts and bolts subject” (Gordon, 541). Teachers and nurses were still the acceptable professions for women, but many started taking pre-business courses and going into graduate school because the professions they wanted required that. “The efforts of women during the Progressive Era significantly impacted the lives of countless Americans and led to many of the “luxuries” we take for granted today-including clean water, trash collection, hot lunches at schools, community playgrounds, fire codes for office buildings, public libraries, and so much more” (National Women’s History Museum,

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