Deck 5: Diversity and Equity: Schooling Girls and Women

Question 1

Critically analyze Mary Leal Harkness's critique of vocational education for girls.

Answer 1

No answer

Question 2

Do you believe that any of Augustine's views on women and men continue to influence the educational experiences of girls and women today? How, specifically?

Answer 2

No answer

Question 3

If the Seneca Falls Declaration was purposely based on classical liberalism, which was the dominant ideology of the time, how could the document have been considered radical or extreme in its views? Explain.

Answer 3

No answer

Question 4

Do you see any parallels to the past in conservative, liberal, and radical thinking about the roles (and therefore the education) of girls and women today? Give examples and evidence to support your view.

Question 5

Critically evaluate what you take to be the most important claims and resolutions made in the Seneca Falls Declaration. Why do you think the 12th and last resolution was narrowly passed, instead of being unanimously passed as the others were?

Question 6

Given your understanding of the history and educational experiences of women as a marginalized group, what "lessons" have you taken, or should the larger community of educators take, away from this understanding?

Question 7

European American cultural norms that subordinate women to men in society

A) are directly antithetical to Christian tradition.
B) have their basis at least partly in Christian tradition.
C) were basically overcome by the twentieth century.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 8

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, interpreted Christian doctrine

A) to be mistakenly biased against women.
B) directly in accord with tradition up to his time.
C) to hold women responsible for the loss of free will among all humans.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 9

The identification of men with an essentially rational nature and women with an emotional nature

A) was rejected by classical liberals but revived in modern liberalism.
B) was a significant part of Augustine's thinking about gender roles.
C) was rejected during the progressive era.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 10

Catharine Beecher's perspective on the role and social position of women

A) did not challenge the second-class status of women in public life.
B) maintained that happiness was derived from subordination to one's husband.
C) emphasized the liberal education of women's rational capacities.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 11

The historical exclusion of girls from schooling prior to the Revolution was grounded in the view that

A) it was not necessary to educate girls in an agrarian and frontier society.
B) girls were not suited for intellectual activities.
C) education could cause physical and mental weakness in females.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 12

When private schools for girls and young women were established in the 19th century, _____.

A) they presented a radical challenge to the view that girls should not be formally educated as well as boys
B) they were designed primarily for the poor, who could not otherwise attend school
C) they focused on developing the qualities desired in a good wife
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 13

Nineteenth-century school practices based on the cult of domesticity were

A) established for all females.
B) punishable by death.
C) extended to all but the poorest of females.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 14

Of the conservative, liberal, and radical perspectives regarding the education of women in the 19th century, the two positions that were most consistent with classical liberal views on gender roles

A) were the conservative and radical views.
B) were the conservative and liberal views.
C) were the radical and liberal views.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 15

As prominent male educators in the 18th and 19th centuries advocated that women's education suit women for their domestic roles in society, _____.

A) many women educators took a similar position
B) most women educators publicly rejected that position
C) working-class males rejected this view
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 16

The Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention of 1848 used classical liberal notions of natural rights and human rationality to frame a manifesto

A) of resistance to male privilege in society, politics, and education.
B) advocating awareness of education as the key to economic success.
C) extolling the virtues of vocational education for women.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 17

Academies, normal schools, and high schools in the 18th and 19th centuries all represented

A) social Darwinist ideology.
B) institutions designed primarily for the subordination of women.
C) an expansion of educational opportunities for women.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 18

By the late 19th century, girls outnumbered boys in public high school graduation, _____.

A) but a bare majority of all high school-aged girls actually completed high school in the United States
B) but fewer than ten percent of the entire high school-aged population graduated in the United States
C) but for the first time a majority of all high school-aged students graduated high school in the United States
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 19

In 1861, Matthew Vassar established Vassar College at Poughkeepsie to

A) provide women with collegiate educations equal to those provided in the best male colleges.
B) provide educational options to women that were less expensive than those available to men.
C) allow men of color to receive the same education as received by others.
D) implement domestic science training for girls so that they were prepared for domestic work in other people's homes.

Question 20

Which of the following was true of commercial education in the United States at the turn of the 20th century?

A) It was among the slowest growing areas of study in high schools across the country in this period.
B) It was largely male because the labor market sought men for low-paying clerical positions.
C) It was class-biased rather than sex-segregated.
D) It was primarily a curriculum for women and especially for the daughters of less affluent families.

Question 21

Early in the 20th century, the National Education Association

A) opposed the dominant view that vocational education for girls should focus on sex-typed occupations.
B) endorsed the view that vocational education for girls should focus on sex-typed occupations.
C) sought political advantage by steering clear of any discussion of vocational education for girls.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 22

Domestic science courses in the progressive era approached the education of girls in ways that

A) upheld the view that women's place was in the home and in "female" occupations.
B) replaced the cult of domesticity with education in academic sciences.
C) was unsuccessful in extending females' educational opportunities.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 23

Commercial education for girls in the progressive era was

A) designed to prepare females for management positions in the new business culture.
B) limited largely to preparing girls for clerical occupations in the emerging business culture.
C) distributed equally throughout all economic classes and ethnic groups.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 24

In the progressive era's approach to differentiated curriculum, _____.

A) academic education was considered appropriate for boys but not for girls
B) girls were tracked into vocational programs regardless of their social class backgrounds
C) gender interacted with class in influencing whether girls would be enrolled in the vocational or academic curriculum
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 25

When Mary Leal Harkness writes "superstition begins to hamper a girl's education almost at the very beginning," she is referring first to the belief that

A) girls are not as adept as boys in mathematics and science.
B) girls have a greater aptitude than boys for subjects in the humanities.
C) girls' education should be deemphasized to protect their delicate health.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 26

Harkness's views on vocational education are not only critical with regard to girls and young women

A) but also critical of wasting any student's time in vocational coursework.
B) but also critical of vocational education in general.
C) but also critical of the view that motherhood is a woman's highest calling.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 27

In the context of the women's rights movement in the 19th century, which of the following is true of Elizabeth Cady Stanton?

A) She was deeply influenced by Matthew Vassar.
B) She argued that every girl should study domestic science.
C) She appointed a commission to study charters for female colleges.
D) She was deeply influenced by the antislavery movement.

Question 28

Which of the following is true of the role of Mary Leal Harkness in the women's rights movement of the early 20th century?

A) She developed teaching techniques and learning materials that facilitated rote memorization.
B) She argued that female education should be confined to domestic science and commercial education.
C) She criticized the various ideological justifications for the subordinate place of women in society.
D) She argued that girls must be educated in order to make them more "fit companions for their husbands."

Question 29

A problem with the academy system with respect to women's education was that

A) the girls' curriculum was usually different from that of the boys.
B) the schools were overcrowded.
C) the best education for women was offered in other places.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 30

Normal schools were meant to

A) teach women the "proper" way to act.
B) train teachers for schools.
C) promote vocational education for boys and girls.
D) teach employment skills to young girls.

Question 31

The American college

A) never allowed women to attend college.
B) was too expensive for men and women to attend.
C) did not offer women an education equal to men's education until Vassar College.
D) educated men and women together.

Question 32

During the 19th century, White Americans were concerned with educating their daughters

A) to be productive workers and political agents.
B) to be rational and independent beings.
C) to be wives and mothers.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 33

The exclusion of girls from American public schools in the 18th century was the result of

A) neglect or oversight.
B) the lack of need to educate girls in a frontier society.
C) the belief that females were unsuited for intellectual activities.
D) the belief that females were unsuited for intellectual activities and the lack of need to educate girls in a frontier society.

Question 34

Which of the following was true of Anna Julia Cooper?

A) She was one of the first African Americans to receive a Ph.D.
B) Like Catharine Beecher, she believed women to be subordinate to men.
C) She was a university president.
D) She was a university president and one of the first African Americans to receive a Ph.D.

Question 35

To alleviate the political-economic difficulties surrounding the turn of the 20th century, Americans turned to

A) immigration.
B) local control of neighborhood schools.
C) progressive reform in schooling.
D) industrialization.
E) All of these answers are correct.

Question 36

During the progressive era, the school curriculum for girls was changed to include much more

A) liberal education.
B) vocational education.
C) commercial education.
D) vocational and commercial education.

Question 37

Which of the following statements best characterizes the authors' assessment of Emma Willard's contributions?

A) Her conservatism stood in the way of genuine educational progress for women.
B) Her liberalism led her to make a significant contribution to the education and autonomy of women.
C) Her radicalism was too far ahead of its time to have a practical impact.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 38

Which two components contributed the most to the progressive era changes in the nature and purpose of women's education?

A) Progressives and progressive educational reform
B) Domestic sciences and commercial education
C) Liberals and new liberal ideology
D) Political-economic change and sensual-classical liberal ideology

Question 39

Anna Julia Cooper was known for

A) her activism on the part of African American women.
B) her position that Christian ideals were compatible with educational ideals.
C) her belief that political and social equality in a racist culture was possible through the education of African American women.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 40

What was the most important educational achievement of the "cult of domesticity"?

A) Women were taught the nurturing role of the wife.
B) Women received some form of formal education.
C) Women were taught to be the family's early educator and moral exemplar.
D) Women were taught both the nurturing role of the wife and to be the family's early educator and moral exemplar.

Question 41

The social and economic inequalities based on gender that still exist in society today are evidenced in part by

A) the nature and content of media influences on women and girls.
B) the reinforcement of gender stereotypes in contemporary classrooms.
C) both the reinforcement of gender stereotypes in contemporary classrooms and the nature and content of media influences on women and girls.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 42

In colonial times, a desirable wife

A) spoke several European languages.
B) was a proficient homemaker and nurturing mother.
C) demonstrated her intellectual capacity in both the domestic and public spheres.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 43

Catharine Beecher's educational and social vision could be considered "liberal" because

A) it did not challenge the established social order.
B) it conceptualized education for women as important and necessary.
C) it was a middle-class ideal.
D) All of these answers are correct.