ABSTRACT

Even before there was a women’s movement, women had begun to plead for and demand access to formal education (see Box 5.1). In fact, in the United States, early efforts to educate women became a foundation for the first recorded gathering of women’s rights advocates at Seneca Falls in 1848 (Flexner 1975; Kraditor 1968). Since then, American women have continued to claim equal rights to education. This issue has remained so important partly because the ideas about the purpose of education-for men or women-have continued to change. We examine such developments below.