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Women Who Paved the Way

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There was a time in our history when women would receive a very minimal amount of education. Many stayed home to tend to the family and were dependent on a man to take care of them. Some women believed these morals to be wrong, and not enough, so they decided to take a stand & make changes. Two women who influenced change are Catharine Beecher (1800-1878) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902). Catharine Beecher was born into a prominent family who in the late nineteenth century influenced American Culture and politics. Catharine devoted most of her life to the cause of women’s education. She was the eldest of thirteen children her mother had given birth to. At the age of nine Catharine and her family had relocated to Litchfield Connecticut where she attended at the Litchfield Female Academy. At the academy she was taught by a teacher who is recognized as Sarah Pierce. Sarah Pierce taught a limited amount of young girls out of home, which eventually had expanded due to the demand of education after the American Revolution. Peirce believed that men and women were intellectually equal. Within Beecher’s time at the academy she absorbed some of Pierce’s revolutionary ideas. At the age of sixteen Catharine lost her mother which only allowed the bond with her father to grow even more even after he had remarried a year later. As being the oldest she was viewed by the younger children as a mother figure. With the loss of her mother Beecher began to write poems and ballads that were circulated among local literary circles. Later some of her works were published in the Christian Spectator under the signature C.D.D.. After, Professor Alexander became very intrigued by Catharine they later began a relationship. The two later married and relocated to New Haven. Not soon after her husband had died in a shipwreck. In the time of mourning her husband’s death Beecher had began her education with the help of Fisher’s brother. She had decided to now focus all her energy on the field of education. In 1823 Catharine Beecher co-founded the Hartford Female Seminary. Whose purpose was to train women to be mothers and teachers. In 1829 she had published a seminal essay on the importance of women teachers. The work published is known as the “Suggestions Respecting Improvements in Education.” This essay advoca

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