For all of my life, getting an education was no unusual thing for myself and other females. I knew I’d go to elementary school through high school and then college, with little doubt in my mind. But, throughout history, women have not always have had the luxury of any education, let alone university level schooling.
With that in mind, I will be centering my ‘Evolving Ideas’ projects around the evolution of schooling/education for women. My hope is to start in the Classical Era, specifically during the time of Ancient Greece and work all the way to present day. I feel Ancient Greece is a good starting point because during this time, women had the littlest semblance of schooling possible (which was wealthier families allowing their daughters to be taught how to read). I feel it will be very interesting to see how we went from that to where we are today.
I feel this is a very important topic to explore and “story” to tell. Why? Well, for one, women have had to overcome many barriers to reach equality, and we’re still in this process. Telling this story is a strong way to acknowledge this fact. Furthermore, I believe that developing a greater understanding of this evolution can be quite uplifting and inspire myself and my female peers to continue fighting for full equality between us and males.
To guide my research in exploring this topic, I have come up with a few questions to ask. Mainly, I will be asking what education consisted of for women during a particular era. I will also explore the answers to questions of how valued education was during this time, what purpose education served during this era, and what society’s simultaneous perception of women was.
Now, where did my interest in this topic really stem from? The answer is simple: my great-aunt Sarabeth. Just like me, she attended Penn State University. However, she studied here approximately 60 years ago, when women going to university was nowhere near as common as it is now. I can recall her telling me about the large difference in numbers for men and women. Moreover, nearly all of her female peers were studying a very limited spread of subjects such as nursing, teaching, etc. Needless to say, I found it crazy to learn how unheard of it was for a woman to study engineering like I am currently.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now; stay tuned for my Ted Talk covering all I mentioned and more!