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Emma Hart Willard: Inequality For Women's Education

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Emma Hart Willard was an early link in the chain of equality for women’s education. Emma knew that the time was not right for women to have equal occupations as men, so she decided to set the first stepping stone by giving women a seminary where they could learn college level curriculum equivalent, if not better than men’s. Willard started her career in the 1800s when women needed her most. This time period kept wives from working, denied women in colleges, and forbid females from speaking out in public. In 1821, Emma taught the world that women could be seen as educated and intelligent when she proposed a plan for higher education for women and established Troy Female Seminary. In a time of great inequality for women, Emma Hart Willard …show more content…

Her liberal father “recognized Emma’s natural abilities and encouraged her in her studies,” and “included his daughter in conversations about topics that were typically only discussed among men, such as philosophy and politics” (NationalWomen’sHistoryMuseum.org). Samuel Hart gave his daughter the inspiration and confidence she would need to take her brave stand. Willard’s early experiences in school exposed two things to her: the inequality towards women’s education, and her ability to self-teach. Emma enrolled in Berlin Academy at age fifteen, and after completing her studies was soon offered a position as a teacher. Her innate hardworking and intelligent qualities soon brought on a promotion for principal at Middlebury Vermont’s women’s academy at only age twenty. Willard experienced a second great inequality when she had to leave behind her position at the academy to marry Dr. John Willard and raise his four children and give birth to her own. As well as her father, Dr. Willard was a very encouraging male influence in Emma’s life, “His generous heart was pleased with her efforts after intellectual culture, and he was proud of her achievements” (Brainerd, 8). During this time as a housewife, the Willards took in their male relative who was pursuing a higher level education. He presented her with college level curriculum, and she realized for a third time the vast absence of …show more content…

At this time, Emma was only teaching lessons appropriate for women of the time. But, she lived near a college and realizing their studies made her “Bitterly feel the disparity in educational facilities between the sexes” (Brainerd, 12). Teaching these young girls inspired Emma to take her first bold step; she wrote a proposal to the legislators as an open letter to the public, titled “A Plan for Improving Female Education.” Society would have dismissed Willard from the start if she attempted to speak out in public, so she used her great skills as a writer to present her case. Her writing clearly states her desire to better the minds and character of half of the nation, which (as demonstrated by this next excerpt) would also improve the other half. “But if the female character be raised, it must inevitably raise that of the other sex: and thus does the plan proposed, offer, as the object of legislative bounty, to elevate the whole character of the community” (Willard 6). She was careful to declare that women’s education would help them to become better wives and mothers, and by doing this she eliminated controversy that could have taken away from her point of equal education. Most politicians thought her ideas were absurd, but the governor and men in Troy, New York agreed with her. They felt the same

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