In the company of educated women

This is a historical overview of women's higher education. Solomon explores women's struggles for access to institutions, the dimensions of collegiate experience, the effects of education on women's life choices, and the connection between feminism and women's educational advancement. She shows how the interaction of women's aspirations with outside forces both hindered and helped women in the sphere of higher education. The author treats theorists such as Judith Murray and Mary Wollstonecraft, educators Mary Lyon and Catherine Beecher, and opponents like Dr. E.H. Clarke. Other topics include: the development of antebellum academies, the careers of their graduates, the push for women's colleges and coeducation, extracurricular college life, the development of home economics, and the Catholic, black, immigrant, and Jewish experiences. ISBN 0-300-03314-1: $25.00.