04-29-95, Episode 274 - Women of Achievement and Herstory

There was a question about which were the first women's colleges.
This is what I've been able to piece together - stay tuned ...
      Mount Holyoke College opened in 1837 as the FIRST women's
college in the United States to offer comparable, formal education to
women.  
      Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, was founded in 1836 and
became the first college in the WORLD chartered to award women
college degrees. It granted baccalaureate degrees for the first time
in 1842 to 11 women.
      A woman's seminary was opened in Benicia, California in 1852
and was purchased in 1865 by Susan and Cyrus Mills, who moved it 
to Oakland and renamed it Mills College.  It is listed as opening in
1852 in most references.
      Swarthmore College was founded in 1864, the first graduating
class was 1873. Vassar College opened in 1865.   
      Ursaline College in Cleveland is listed as opening in 1871.
      Wellesley College opened in 1875 just 24-hours before Smith
College. Smith College was chartered in 1871 and opened for students
in 1875.
      Radcliffe, as the women's annex of Harvard, opened in 1879 and
was rechartered in 1894 as a separate entity. Radcliffe students
today are Harvard students.                      
      Bryn Mawr College had its first students in 1885. Goucher in
Maryland is listed as 1885. Barnard opened in 1889.
      Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, FL, is noted as
opening in 1872, but that was as Cookman, a school for black MEN. 
The unbelievably powerful and dedicated Mary McLeod Bethune
opened her school for black children in 1904 (five girls and one boy
who was her son).  Bethune College merged with Cookman in 1923
with Bethune as president. So for the purposes of a women's college
listing,  Bethune-Cookman must be listed as being founded in 1904. 
      I'm sure there's a reference somewhere with the dates of the
founding of women's colleges as well as a listing of when MEN's
colleges "ALLOWED" women into the sacred halls, but I haven't found
it (them) yet.
      It is almost inconceivable to a modern American woman that for
thousands of years, men were so insecure that they forbade - by
force - education for women... Thank the goddess that most men are
not that insecure anymore ... and those few that are can be seen for
what they are ...

04-29 Anniversaries ...............................................

      Event 04-29-1429, Joan of Arc{X}, entered besieged city of
Orleans to lead victory over English.

      B. 04-29-1913, Tania Long, journalist, foreign correspondent
(1938) for _New York Times_ (1946), her coverage of the bombings of
London won her the Newspaper Women's Club award.  She warned of
American troops being taken in by the false humility of the Germans
after World War II and being taken into their camp of thinking
regarding racial purity and militarism.

      Event 04-29-1992, State Farm Insurance Co.{X}, was ordered to
pay $157 million to hundreds of California women who were not
offered or given jobs as State Farm agents because of their sex. It
was the largest sex-discrimination settlement in US history.
The settlement will be shared by more than 814 women that began 
June, 1979 when Muriel Kraszewski sued because she was repeatedly
turned down for agent jobs at State Farm offices in South California.
As a result of the suit, the less than 1% of female agents with State
Farm in 1979 has increased to more than 50% today. Women make up
more than 50% of the population.


(C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. Don't let anyone tell you there
weren't notable and effective women throughout history.  They were
always there, but historians failed to note them in our histories so
that each generation of women has had to reinvent themselves.