Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part One Foundations
- 1 Reading, Literary Magazines, and the Debate over Gender Equality
- 2 Education, Gender, and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South
- Part Two Women Journalists and Writers in The Old South
- Part Three Women Journalists and Writers in The New South
- Epilogue Women???s Press Associations and Professional Journalism
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
2 - Education, Gender, and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part One Foundations
- 1 Reading, Literary Magazines, and the Debate over Gender Equality
- 2 Education, Gender, and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South
- Part Two Women Journalists and Writers in The Old South
- Part Three Women Journalists and Writers in The New South
- Epilogue Women???s Press Associations and Professional Journalism
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
“The old times have passed away,” an observer wrote in De Bow’s Review in 1868, “when Betsey was content to learn reading, writing and arithmetic at the parish school house in order that John might enjoy the advantage of a college education. Now-a-days, Betsey wants a college education too, and it is very probable she will make a far better use of it when once acquired than John ever will. In fact, if it can be accorded but to one, Betsey should have it.” Typical of nineteenth-century calls for greater educational opportunities for white women, this passage from one of the South’s leading magazines is evidence of the commonplace paeans made to a substantive education. As scholars such as Mary Kelley and Christie Anne Farnham have pointed out, southerners increased the length of schooling and the sophistication of the curriculum for girls and young women in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011