Education

Historically, if you weren’t wealthy, white, and male, access to formal education was limited. That never stopped women and girls from striving to get as much education as possible. Teaching and learning at kitchen tables, in church basements, in one-room classrooms, and at Ivy League universities, women continue to use their agency to push for equal educational access. According to findings published by the Pew Research Center in June 2019, women are now half of the U.S. college-educated workforce.

Girl holds piece of starry fabric on a female sewing dress form. She has pins in her mouth, and more pins and a scissors lie on the ground next to her. There is a curtain and a painting behind her. Read the Story Behind This Object Empowering Embroidery

In school, girls are taught to fit in. This video from our Girlhood (It's complicated) exhibition looks at how in classrooms, on the playground, at lunch, and even in the bathroom, girls learn how to behave, what to wear, what to say, and what to study. They learn the rules, and they learn how to break the rules. In this mix, girls confront what society expects from them. Like anyone being "schooled," girls talk back.

Collection Objects

Learn about these featured stories or see more examples of education in our collections.

Betsey’s sampler includes three distinguishing features of Rhode Island samplers; trumpeting angels with embroidered faces, queen stitch flowers, and a three-story house.
Collection Item
Betsy Bucklin's Sampler
A skirt and blouse in a matching alphabetical print of blue, teal, and white on a black background.
Collection Item
Carlotta Walls LaNier's First Day of School Dress
1876 Ellen Harding Baker's Solar System Quilt
Collection Item
Ellen Harding Baker's "Solar System" Quilt
Lego figurines of Margaret Hamilton, Katherine Johnson, Sally Ride, Nancy Grace Roman, and Mae Jemison.
Collection Item
LEGO® Prototypes of Margaret Hamilton, Katherine Johnson, Sally Ride, Nancy Grace Roman, and Mae Jemison
This postcard shows a woman sitting on the observing chair in front of a large refracting telescope
Collection Item
Maria Mitchell
Mary McLeod Bethune stands in front of a painting of a house and palm trees.
Collection Item
Mary McLeod Bethune

Conversation Kit

Let's Talk! Juliette Gordon Low and the Girl Scouts Conversation Kit

Grades 6–12. Time: Variable (1–3 class periods). Aligned to CCSS standards.

In this lesson plan students will learn about Juliette Gordon Low's founding of the Girl Scouts in 1912 and how this helped change expectations of girls and their roles as community members and citizens. Students will examine the question: How can education change expectations of what girls can and should be?

Videos

The sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. fundraised to buy and distribute books throughout the segregated South to provide students with critical educational tools.

Through their cookbooks, teaching, and television programs, these extraordinary women inspired generations of people to take cooking seriously. They challenged perceptions and stereotypes of women in their respective eras and made lasting contributions to culinary history.

Playlist

Ella Jenkins, The First Lady of Children's Music

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Enjoy songs from groundbreaking children's performer Ella Jenkins.

Smithsonian American Women book cover.

Smithsonian American Women

Remarkable objects and stories of strength, ingenuity, and vision from the National Collection.

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