History of Women’s Higher Education Research Resources
Background Information and Reference Sources
- American Women’s Diaries [microfilm]
- Century of Struggle by Eleanor Flexner
- Encyclopedia of American Social History
- The Encyclopedia of New England: the culture and history of an American region
- From Suffrage to the Senate: an encyclopedia of American women in politics
- Girlhood in America: an encyclopedia
- Handbook of American Women’s History
- Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education in the United States
- Women During the Civil War: an encyclopedia
- American Decades
Search for Books, Videos, Archival Materials and more
Recommended subject searches:
- Women–Education
- Women–Education Higher United States
- Women’s Colleges United States History
- Women–United States–History–19th century
- Women–United States–History–20th Century
- Women–United States–Social Conditions
- Women–Employment–United States
Databases
- America History & Life
- Historical literature of the United States and Canada
- American National Biography
- Biographical profiles of people from all eras who have influenced and shaped American history and culture.
- ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)
- Historical Statistics of the United States
- JSTOR
- Online access to back issues of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- New York Times Historical
- Full text of the national newspaper of record since 1851.
- North American Women’s Letters and Diaries
- Includes the experience of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
Researching Specific Topics
Women in the United States: Social Life, Customs & Conditions
- The Essential Daughter: Changing Expectations for Girls at Home, 1797 to the Present by Mary Collins
- Women in the United States, 1830-1945, by S.J. Kleinberg
- “Just a Housewife”: The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America, by Glenna Matthews
- Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday Life, 1876-1915, by Thomas J. Schlereth
- Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America, by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg
- What Shall We do with our Daughters?: Superfluous Women, and other Lectures, by Mary A. Livermore
- Able-bodied Womanhood: Personal Health and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Boston, by Martha Verbrugge
- The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945, by Harvey Green
- American Women in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920, by Dorothy Schneider
- Setting a Course: American Women in the 1920s, by Dorothy M. Brown
- Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women who made America Modern, by Joshua Zeitz
- Holding Their Own: American Women in the 1930s, by Susan Ware
- From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth Century America, by Beth L. Bailey
History of Women’s Education in the United States
- Campus Life: Undergraduate Cultures from the End of the Eighteenth Century to the Present, by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
- College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Then and Now by Lynn Peril
- In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education, by Barbara Miller Solomon
Women’s Education, 1790-1830
- “Perspectives on the History of Women’s Education in the United States” by Jill K Conway. History of Education Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, Reinterpreting Women’s Education, (Spring, 1974), pp. 1-12.
- The Beginnings of Education in Maine, by Ava Harriet Chadbourne
- Learning to Stand & Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America’s Republic by Mary Kelley
- The Mirror of Antiquity: American Women and the Classical Tradition, 1750-1900, by Caroline Winterer
- Reclaiming a Conversation: The Ideal of the Educated Woman by Jane Roland Martin
Women’s Education, from 1830
- Sentimental Womanhood and Domestic Education, 1830-1870″ by Phillida Bunkle. History of Education Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, Reinterpreting Women’s Education, (Spring, 1974), pp. 13-30
- Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women’s Colleges from their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s, by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
- Catharine Beecher: a Study in American Domesticity, by Kathryn Kish Sklar
- Four Lives in Science: Women’s Education in the Nineteenth Century, by Lois Arnold
- Girls and Literacy in America: Historical Perspectives to the Present by Jane Greer
- Nineteenth-century Women Learn to Write, edited with an introduction by Catherine Hobbs
- Sex in Education : or, A Fair Chance for the Girls by Edward H. Clarke
- Sex and Education: A Reply to Dr. E. H. Clarke’s “Sex in education,” edited, with an introduction, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe
- “The Trouble with Coeducation: Mann and Women at Antioch, 1853-1860,” by John Rury and Glenn Harper. History of Education Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 4, (Winter, 1986), pp. 481-502
Domestic Education
- “Women’s Colleges and Domesticity, 1875-1918” by Roberta Wein. History of Education Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, Reinterpreting Women’s Education, (Spring, 1974), pp. 31-47
- The Bazar Book of Decorum: The Care of the Person, Manners, Etiquette, and Ceremonials.
- The College Girl of America and the Institutions Which Make Her What She Is, by Mary Caroline Crawford; 1905.
- College Girls: a Century in Fiction, by Shirley Marchalonis
- The Housekeeper’s Week, by Marion Harland
- Looking Good: College Women and Body Image, 1875-1930, by Margaret A. Lowe.
The Progressive Era
- “The Gibson Girl Goes to College: Popular Culture and Women’s Higher Education in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920” by Lynn D. Gordon. American Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 2, (Summer, 1987), pp. 211-230.
- Girls’ Schooling During the Progressive Era: From Female Scholar to Domesticated Citizen, by Karen Graves
- Intimate Communities: Representation and Social Transformation in Women’s College Fiction, 1895-1910, by Sherrie A. Inness
- Pioneering Deans of Women: More than Wise and Pious Matrons, by Jane Nidiffer
- Smith College Stories: Ten Stories, by Josephine Bacon
- What Can a Woman Do: or Her Position in the Business and Literary World, by Martha Louise Rayne
- “When the College Girl Comes Home to Stay,” by Mary Fanton Roberts. New York Times; Jan 26, 1913; pg X8
Jane Addams (1860-1935)
- “The Education of Jane Addams” by J.O.C. Phillips. History of Education Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, Reinterpreting Women’s Education, (Spring, 1974), pp. 49-67
- “Varieties of Cultural Experience in Jane Addams’ Chicago,” by Helen L. Horowitz. History of Education Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, Reinterpreting Women’s Education, (Spring, 1974), pp. 69-86
- The Selected Papers of Jane Addams edited by Mary Lynn McCree
College Girls in the 1930’s
- “The College Girl Puts Marriage First,” by Eunice fuller Barnard. New York Times; Apr 2, 1933; pg SM8
- “The New Freedom of the College Girl,” by Eunice Fuller Barnard. New York Times; Mar 19, 1933; pg SM8
- No Nice Girl Swears, by Alice-Leone Moats; 1933.
- Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945-1965 by Linda Eisenmann
Additional Resources
- Maine Women Writers Collection
- The Maine Register or State Year-Book and Legislative Manual: Goes back to 1887.
- Digitized Collections at the Library of Congress
- National Women’s History Museum: The History of Women and Education
- Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
- Sophia Smith Collection, Women’s History Archives at Smith College
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