Overview

You wouldn't think that women once had an issue attending school. As of last year there was 11.3 million women enrolled in college universities during the fall semester. It is hard to imagine that in the seventeenth and eighteenth century women were denied the right to study any type of curriculum, compared to the twenty-first century where 56.8% of students are female.

In our Women and Law class we learned that organizations such as the Women's Club deserved credit for our advances in gaining women's rights when it comes to education. It was realized that women couldn't rely on their husband's financial work to consistently support themselves and their families. In result, by the mid eighteenth century, women were now feeling the urgency to get out into the world as their own and own means of support. Hence the Women's Club was established to help women advance their education, secure their autonomy, and assert influence in the public sphere. 

For women to reach the success they have today took decades of hard work from other courageous, out-spoken women. It wasn't until 1972 when the Title IX Prohibits Sex Discrimination act was created, that demand "no person on the basis of sex is to be subjected to discrimination under any education program." Following in 1974 was the Women's Educational Equity Act that focused on advocating equity in education and  providing assistance to encourage institutions to meet the educational requirements. 

Fast forwarding to the twenty-first century where there are still developing groups and organizations that are persistent on increasing women's equality in education. For example, the Education for All that focus on scholarships, female teacher recruitment, and provision of materials.  

It's disgusting reading cases such as Bradwell v. Illinois 1873, where women such as Myra Bradwell were turned away for admission to the bar because she was a women. The court rejected her due to their "consideration" that the bar would destroy her femininity, as if they were doing her a favor denying her to education. As a woman currently attending a university, I feel extremely privileged and thankful knowing that my grades are the only thing dependent on my education.

Before this Women and Law class, I was extremely uninformed of the struggle that women endured in the prior centuries. Aside from the brave women that took a stand, it's groundbreaking moments like the war that inevitably pushed women to become independent and supportive of themselves. When considered married, women had their little rights stripped away from them and officially became one with their husband. Relying on the men to be the public sphere, provide for the family financially by working, left the women with no education nor work experience. What if a husband left to go into battle, leaving his wife and children at home, only to never return? Who would then provide for the family? In result, I can only imagine the pressure women felt to acquire an education and then a stable job. It cost to live, even back then. Everyone now has the same opportunities to gain an education and that's how it should be! 

-Kara Jalomo

References:

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1099080014368/DID_Girls_edu.pdf

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womencensus1.html

Feminist Legal Hstory: Essays on Women and Law

Edited by Tracy A. Thomas and Tracey Jean Boisseau