Women At Work: 
Work History of Women in America

Women as Educators

Women have always served as the primary educators of children. Even in the earliest days of America the public viewed teaching an acceptable profession for women. Connecticut’s famous female educators included Sarah Porter and Catharine Beecher, who both supported advancements in the education of women; Prudence Crandall, who attempted to run a private school for African-American girls; and Edythe Taylor, first black teacher in Hartford’s Public School System.

< Becoming a teacher was another option for young women hoping to earn wages and independence. Most rural towns had one-room schoolhouses in which children were taught by women or men who had completed a course of schooling that qualified them to teach. This teaching course was sometimes called “normal school”.

Mary Emily Noble’s first Class
Hartford, 1902
Photo CD: 0535 File: Img0024.pcd

< Mary Emily Noble began teaching at age twenty-three and continued for thirty-two years until she was fifty-five. She is a typical example of a woman who dedicated her life to the education of children.

Sarah Porter Reading
Farmington, 1890
Photo CD: 0535 File: img0090.pcd

< Sarah Porter was the founder of Miss Porter’s School, a female seminary for young women. The young women at this school were generally from the upper class and they were educated in arts, music, literature as well as household management and other practical skills to prepare young women to be mothers and wives.

Link to other essays in this Journey:

>> Introduction: Women At Work
>> Women on Farms
>> Factories and Unskilled Wage Labor
>> Church and Charities
>> Domestic Service
>> Improved Educational Opportunities for Women
>> White Collar Employment
>> Women in War
>> Women in Music, Art, Literature

>> Guideposts
>> Suggestions for further reading