Women’s Subjugation and Higher Education From the Colonial Era to the Mid-1960s

In 1619, before there was a single person of African descent brought to the British colonies as chattel, women were for sale: ₤120 for “young and incorrupt” English women intended as brides for Virginian settlers (Giddings, 1984, p.  34). is chapter begins with a discussion of the legal status of women and the inuence of the relegation of women to the private sphere on women’s higher education opportunities. Second, using Gordon’s (1990) delineations of women college students generations, I discuss the trailblazers, the rst generation of women’s college students (1820 to 1890) who confronted social perspectives on women’s intellect and limitations while also advancing struggles for social justice through the anti-slavery and abolitionist movements, women’s suffrage, and women’s rights more broadly. Next, the second and third generations, from 1890 to 1920, struggled for a space on coeducational campuses wherein they would be considered equal in intellect and capability, continuing the quest for women’s surage. is is followed by a discussion of a fourth generation, emerging from the World Wars and would continue the quest of intellectual and career pursuits while balancing personal and political demands for roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers. e chapter closes with perspectives that while having trickled through the ages, were becoming more pronounced, pushing the public to reconsider what is womanhood.