ABSTRACT
Much of the controversy over the role of post-secondary education in the United States centers on the occupational-preparation function of schooling and the relationship of education to the occupational structure. Occupational preparation, however, had limited applicability to women’s education, particularly women’s post-secondary education, at the turn of the century. First, a minority of women were gainfully employed (18.8 percent of the women aged 10 and over). Moreover, a larger portion of single women (31.3 percent) than married women (5.6 percent) worked, which suggests that young women worked until they married and that few women pursued life-long careers (US Bureau of the Census 1904, p. ccxiii). Because marriage represented an alternative or end to gainful employment for most women, fewer women than men expected to need marketable job skills and occupational credentials. Second, most women who went to college came from social classes that disapproved of gainful employment for women; hence, women who pursued post-secondary education often had no intention of entering the labor force (Newcomer 1959; Solomon 1985). Third, other than teaching school, women had few occupational opportunities for which post-secondary educational institutions could train or certify them. Most skilled managerial, professional, and technical jobs were held by men in 1900.
