Transforming Women S Education

Female seminaries in nineteenth-century America offered middle-class women the rare privilege of training in music and the liberal arts. A music background in particular provided the foundation for a teaching career, one of the few paths open to women. Jewel A. Smith opens the doors of four female seminaries, revealing a milieu where rigorous training focused on music as an artistic pursuit rather than a social skill. Drawing on previously untapped archives, Smith charts women's musical experiences and training as well as the curricula and instruction available to them, the repertoire they mastered, and the philosophies undergirding their education. She also examines the complex tensions between the ideals of a young democracy and a deeply gendered system of education and professional advancement. An in-depth study of female seminaries as major institutions of learning, Transforming Women's Education illuminates how musical training added to women's lives and how their artistic acumen contributed to American society.

This edited collection is a vibrant, modern history of women-only labour education events.

The authors draw upon their earlier research examining how feminists have negotiated identity and learning in international contexts or multisector environments. Feminism in Community focuses on feminist challenges to lead, learn, and participate in nonprofit organizations, as well as their efforts to enact feminist pedagogy through arts processes, Internet fora, and critical community engagement. The authors bring a focused energy to the topic of women and adult learning, integrating insights of pedagogy and theory-informed practice in the fields of social movement learning, transformative learning, and community development. The social determinants of health, spirituality, research partnerships, and policy engagement are among the contexts in which such learning occurs. In drawing attention to the identity and practice of the adult educator teaching and learning with women in the community, the authors respond to gender mainstreaming processes that have obscured women as a discernible category in many areas of practice.

Transforming the Lives of Impoverished Girls in Patriarchal Societies Since 2003 a privately funded high school in India has provided desperately needed education for girls from impoverished families in Lucknow, the capital and largest city in Uttar Pradesh. Urvashi Sahni, the founder of Prerna Girls School, has written a compelling narrative of how this modest school in northeast India has changed the lives of more than 5,000 girls and their families. Most important, it is through the perspectives of the girls themselves, rather than through a remote academic viewpoint, that Prerna’s success unfolds. The book focuses on the importance of education in bringing about gender equality in a patriarchal society. It shows how girls learn to be equal and autonomous persons in school as part of their official curriculum and how they use this learning to transform their lives and those of their families. The book’s central argument is that education can be truly transformative if it addresses the everyday reality of girls’ lives and responds to their special needs and challenges with respect and care. The example of just one relatively small school in one corner of India, the message and the stories it tells will inspire anyone concerned about the necessity of girls’ education, especially in developing countries. The lives of the girls at Prerna Girls School are largely representative of those of millions living in poor regions in countries where patriarchal structures and norms prevail.

This book provides deep insights about women in higher education and their contributions to society. Using Kenya as a case study, it places women in higher education at the center of the socioeconomic, political and cultural discourse both within and outside the higher education institution. It is notable that even with the progress made, both in Kenya and globally, gender considerations in social, economic, political and cultural spheres is still minimal. In higher education, gender imbalance is still distinct in varied areas such as career advancement, leadership, mentorship, and scholarship opportunities. In society, women’s efforts still seem to go unnoticed. The aim of these chapters, therefore, is to share women’s research in higher education and in society especially innovative policy and practice concepts, all aimed at contributing to social transformation.

This book examines the life of Virginia Gildersleeve, the dean of Barnard College from 1911 to 1947, who dedicated her life to expanding women’s collegiate opportunities to match those of men, and to allow women entry into professional and graduate programs. Gildersleeve was the first academic to use the media to define for the American public what higher education--and particularly what higher education for women--meant. The only woman to sign the United Nations charter, she made waves by implementing the first program to allow women into the Navy. This book explores how Gildersleeve’s life exemplifies the expanded and changing educational opportunities for women during the Progressive Era and early twentieth century, with the rise of feminists, progressive reformers, and educational philosophers. Although Gildersleeve is nearly forgotten, her importance to women’s higher education, women’s inclusion in the US military, and world peace is captured in this blend of historical analysis and life history.