ABSTRACT
Barbara Egger Lennon's (Barbe’s) entry into Illinois State Normal University took her further down the path toward the educated, independent, and career-minded New Woman she aspired to be. Women’s attendance rose even faster. In part this rise could be attributed to increased access as the number of public universities grew, but Progressive Era ideas about education also played a role. Barbe’s enrollment at Illinois State Normal University occurred during the midst of its efforts to implement many of these progressive ideas about education. In January 1916, Barbe heard the plight of one of those reformers when a teacher from the Chicago Federation of Teachers delivered a spirited description of their decadelong fight for survival. Barbe continued to live in the Lennons’ Bloomington home rather than in approved student housing nearer to the Normal campus, but she did her best to embrace college life as defined by this third generation of college women.
