University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1983 Between 'true women' and 'new women' : Mount Holyoke students, 1837 to 1908. Tiziana. Rota University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Rota, Tiziana., "Between 'true women' and 'new women' : Mount Holyoke students, 1837 to 1908." (1983). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1394. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1394 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. J BETWEEN 'TRUE WOMEN' AND 'NEW WOMEN': MOUNT HOLYOKE STUDENTS, 1837 TO 1908. A Dissertation Presented By TIZIANA ROTA Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY February 1983 History Tiziana Rota All Rights Reserved ii BETWEEN 'TRUE WOMEN' AND 'NEW WOMEN': MOUNT HOLYOKE STUDENTS, 1837 TO 1908. A Dissertation Presented By TIZIANA ROTA Approved as to style and content by: Committee Prop. Jpyce Berkraan , Chairperson of Prof. Miriam Chrisman, Member Prof. Penina Glazer /^Member Prof. Gerald McFarland, Member Leonard Richards,' Department Head Department of History To ANNA FANTINI ROTA For she taught me the value of education. i V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No one works alone, and I have benefitted from the help of family and friends. First of all, to my mother, who was denied access to education beyond the elementary level because she was woman and the daughter of a sharecropper, I owe more than just my life. She consistently impressed upon me the idea that Sapere e' helped in every possible way to potere , knowledge is power, and she make our dream come true. Thank you. To my faithful supporter, companion, advisor and friend, Daniel Patrick, I owe more than just a marriage. Husbands rarely assist in such traditional duties of the academic spouse as typing and footnote checking, but Daniel has never been traditional. He put up with my endless talks about Mary Lyon, Mary Woolley and my women, smiled his way through domestic chores while my research and his created havoc in our lives. We have finished his thesis and my dissertation and we are still married. To Anne Fitzpatrick, Candace Hall, Mieke Rossi, Helen Sheehan feminism, and Crystal Zingler I owe the discovery of grassroot friendship beyond national boundaries, devotion to family and acceptance of our differences. of the Anne C. Edmonds, Elaine Trehub, and Linda Wendry provided me with Williston Memorial Library have encouraged me and of my incessants new insights, and, above all, never grew tired requests for new material. V . Lisa Campbell, Katy Cowles, Pat Driscoll and Joyce Vann of the University Computing Center have been patient teachers and supportive listeners. The statistical analysis and numerous dissertation's drafts were done with the use of CYBER and a U.C.C. student grant To professor Joyce A, Berkman I owe an immense debt of gratitude. She has been the perfect mentor, may others learn from her. She has been the most important teacher in my graduate career and a force behind the years of research, data collection and writing. Professor Miriam U. Chrisman has always been a supporter of my research project, willing to lend a ear and always ready to share new insights. Prof. Penina Glazer found the time among her many academic, administrative and scholarly tasks to read my draft, make suggestions and stimulate my thinking. Prof. Gerald McFarland's help was critical in placing Mount Holyoke women in the and social context of the Gilded age. His lessons in historiography life. To his sense of humor have been a real plus to my graduate all of my committee members a heartfelt thank you. Richards, Finally, a special thank you to Prof. Leonard me use his Chairman of the History Department, who graciously let office when my kitchen table became insufficient. vi . ABSTRACT Between 'True Women' and 'New Women': Mount Holyoke Students, 1837 To 1908. February 1983 Tiziana Rota, Laurea, Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italy) M,A., Mount Holyoke College, Ph.D«, University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Joyce A. Berkman This study explores the role played by education in the lives of students who attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (later Mount Holyoke College) in a period of transition from the canons of "true womanhood" to a more secular feminine ideal. The thesis also challenges two current prevailing views in the history of women's education; first, that most institutions of higher learning shared the same educational ideals of women's social roles; secondly, that students' lives before and after college followed homogeneous life courses Mary Lyon through the founding Mount Holyoke Female Seminary sought to institutionalize the prescriptions of "true womanhood" which she had addressed in her writings. In practice, the daily rule and regimen was aimed at forming a "benevolent character" through conformity, docility, and internalized time discipline. By practices the decade of the l8MOs, Mary Lyon followed educational however, the which foreshadowed a "new womanhood." By the 1870s, problems strict regimentation of Seminary life created disciplinary vii . and students* discontent . At the same time the ideal roles of Seminary educated women also shi f ted . The ideal Mount Hoi yoke woman emerged as a compromise between the old and the new, a "social humanitarian" and a transitional type This shift in educational ideals coincided with a change in the social composition of the student body. The thesis draws a collective portrait of two groups of students who attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (1881 to 1888) and Mount Holyoke College twenty years later (1901 to 1908), by analyzing such factors as geographic origins, fathers' occupation, age of parents at students' birth and position among siblings (including their number and sex). When compared with an earlier group of students (1837-1850), the study shows that the social origins of students shifted from predominantly farming families to a heterogeneous group composed of daughters of professionals, businessmen, white collar workers as students well as farmers in the 1880s. By the 1900s Mount Holyoke were primarily daughters of professional and managerial urban families The final part of this study explores the occupational, through a marriage and parenting patterns of Mount Holyoke alumnae, In combination of collective biography and longitudinal method. sequence and timing addition, the life course model identifies the stages of the life-cycle. of the transitions between the various group who followed Mount Holyoke Seminary women prove to be a example, those who diverse and at times unexpected paths. For viii worked were engaged primarily in teaching, but over half became "careerists." While a majority of these alumnae led traditional domestic lives, a sizable minority either remained single and devoted all their lives to gainful employment or worked for seven to eight years, then married and had children. Ultimately Mount Holyoke students examined in this study represent the embodiment of the transitional woman. They were part of a generation who sought to break away from ante-bellum life patterns, but they were too young to be pioneers and too old to be new women. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 Method s and Sources 10 II. MARY LYON AND MOUNT HOLYOKE 19 Mary Lyon 20 Education for Women 35 Mary Lyon and Mount Holyoke 45 III. SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF MOUNT HOLYOKE STUDENTS .... 66 Social Origins 70 Geographical Origins 81 Family Structure 89 Summary 106 IV. STUDENTS' LIFE AT THE SEMINARY, 1850-1880 108 The Academic Experience 122 The Social Experience 135 V, FROM SEMINARY TO COLLEGE 164 The Educational Scene 165 Higher Education for Women 167 Old and New Institutions 171 Mount Holyoke and New Colleges 174 Public Opinion and Mount Holyoke 181 Identity Crisis and Change 189 The Board of Trustees 196 A New College Emerges 209 VI. FROM SCHOOL LIFE TO LIFE'S SCHOOL 220 Expectations 234 Education Occupation 246 Marriage and Parenting 283 VII. THE SPINDLE AND THE SPIRAL 304 From Mary Lyon to Mary Woolley 307 314 The Life Course of Educated Women, 1880-1900 . Between True Women and New Women 335 X BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX 360 xi LIST OF TABLES 1. Father's Occupation of Mount Holyoke Students, 1838-1888 71 2. Father's Occupation of Smith College and Mount Holyoke Seminary Students, Classes of 1885-1880 n 3. Father's Occupation of Mount Holyoke Students, 1885-1908 79 4. Area of Residence of Mount Holyoke Students, 1885-1908 S 5. Size of Students' Town of Residence, Smith College and Mount Holyoke, 1885-1908 ^ 6. Region of Residence at Admission, Mount Holyoke Students, 1881-1908 7. State of Residence at Admission, Breakdown of the North Eastern Region, Mount Holyoke Students, 1881-1908 85 8. Population of Region and State by Residence, 1850-1900 85 9. Place of Birth of Mount Holyoke Students, 1881-1908 86 10. Place of Birth of Parents of Mount Holyoke Students, 1901-1908 88 11. Number of Childern in Families of Mount Holyoke Students, 1881-1908 90 12. Children Ever Born by Birth Cohort of Mothers .... 91 13. Parents' Age at Year of Admission of Mount Holyoke Students, 1881-1908 93 14. Birth Order of Mount Holyoke Students, 1881-1908 . 97 15. Birth Order of Mount Holyoke Students Among Daughters 97 16. Sex of Children in Families of Mount Holyoke Students, 1881-1908 100 17. Relatives Attending Mount Holyoke Before Students' Matriculation, 1881-1904 105 18. Age at Admission of Mount Holyoke Students, 1885-1888 1 17 19.