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Brief History
From as early as the seventeenth century, when public schools were established, women could only attend school for four months in a year, starting from April. At this point in time, children under the age of seven years were not being admitted to school, but since their parents thought it was important for them to begin being taught by this age, the churches allowed for the teachers who took care of them in church and who were mostly female, to start giving them education. This was a good platform for women who would later be the ones to teach these children when they entered primary school and consequently gain experience in school management. It, therefore, followed that most charity schools were established by women, and they were for girls only, effectively taking care of the inequality that was present in the education system.
With the setting up of normal schools, the female teachers could no longer teach from intuition as they had previously done. They now required special training, and this was the beginning of the fulfillment of their thirst for knowledge, for they did not become satisfied with just high school education, but seeing the men attending university, they also followed suit. When Boston University opened in 1871 and later the Institute of Technology, they gave equal opportunities to both sexes in all departments (Ednah., 1948). This was an important step in the evolution of womens education in the U.S., and they have not looked back since then.
Trends today
Todays woman understands that education is the gateway to economic independence. Gone are the days when the man was the sole provider in the family and was therefore, to some extent, justified to get a better education in order to provide for the family. The American woman today is laden with the burden of ensuring that she can and is able to, at any moment, provide for her family; what with women forming more than half of the U.S. population and divorce rates skyrocketing. This reality has led to women being more aggressive in gaining education in order to assume greater leadership roles in the society, the workplace and the family. (McClelland 1992)
Statistics
In surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, statistics showed that women were graduating from high school at a higher rate than men by the year 2006. (U.S. Census Bureau). Other surveys showed that inasmuch as a higher percentage of men have a bachelors degree in the general population, a higher percentage of women between twenty five and twenty nine years of age obtained a bachelors degree in 2005 as compared to their male counterparts. In the same age group, eighty eight percent of women, that is four percent higher than their male counterparts, had completed their high school education.
Comparisons were made to show progress, and it was discovered that by 2006, the number of women who had obtained their bachelors degree was more than double that of 1986, twenty years earlier. The same statistics show that the number of women who had obtained a bachelors degree or higher education by 2006 was slightly more than ten percent when compared to twenty years earlier. More over, women are continuing to make big steps towards attaining their education. The National Bureau of statistics on education projected that the number of women grandaunts in the academic year 2007-2008 would be more than their male counterparts, with the women taking home fifty nine percent of the bachelors degrees and sixty one percent of the masters degrees awarded in that academic year.( National Center for Education Statistics).
On top of this, it was also predicted that the women would earn a bigger percentage of the first professional degrees like medical and law degrees. This shows a bolder trend in education adopted by women in that they are no longer limiting themselves but are wiling to take on even the most challenging courses that were previously set aside for men, when it had been believed that women could not tackle such courses and had therefore been left to learn about taking care of their homes. This impression is no longer applicable as statistics now show that the wife has more education than her spouse in over twenty percent of all the married couples. Women have also made advances in their use of computers. During 80s and 90s decades, more men than women used the computer but by 2003 the trend had reversed and the women were leading by a two percentage point in the use of computers (U.S. Census Bureau).
Conclusion
These statistics show the education trends of women in the United States very clearly, and this is that women are taking control of their education. Judging from the number of women who are completing high school, it shows that the women are taking education more seriously from a young age. The rising numbers of women who are obtaining bachelors degrees in their twenties show that women are not getting satisfied with just basic education, but that they want to learn more so that they can be able to get professional jobs and take more control in the industries, society and at home. Women are increasingly going for the masters programmes, and not only that, they are exceeding the number of men in these programmes and are graduating in first-degree programmes that were originally thought to be for men only. This shows that the trend of women education in the U.S. is getting bigger and better and that the women will soon be dominating in the education sector. This is a positive achievement considering that in most places the world over; there is an education gap in the academic sector which is always in favor of the men.
References
Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney. 1948. Evolution of Womens Education in the United States. Publication: Elliott, Maud Howe, Ed. AC.
McClelland, Averil Evans. 1992. The Education of Women in the United States: A Guide to Theory, Teaching, and Research. Garland Publishing, 1000A Sherman Avenue,Hamden, CT 06514.
U.S. Census Bureau: U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Feature: Womens History Month 2008. Web.
ies National Center for Education Statistics: Projections of Education Statistics to 2015: Web.
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