Education in the United States has significantly evolved from the founding of the country to where the system is today. Notably, the most remarkable improvement of the US education system is the fact that only privileged white males were taught in schools. In comparison to today, the US education system provides mass education for all citizens no matter race, sexuality, or religion and specifically, this post, focusing on gender.

In Americas nineteenth century, women’s access to education grew remarkably, providing woman the opportunity to become both teachers and students. Prior to the ninetieth century, very few girls were able to receive an education. This wasn’t until the Common School Movement of the mid 1800s that girls could participate in higher education. During this movement, Catherine Beecher founded the Hartford Female Seminary, a private school for girl’s in Hartford, Connecticut. Five years later, Mary Lyon founded the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary to be the first to provide women with higher education. For the majority of the Common School Movement, schools were segregated by gender. This was until 1855 that the University of Iowa was the first state university to admit men and women on an equal basis.

In today’s society, women have surpassed men in terms of college enrollment, graduation rates, and higher education degrees such as bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Women have continuously been the growing majority in the United States education system and sill numbers are growing today!