Catharine Esther Beecher Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Catharine Esther Beecher

Catharine Beecher was one of the first women in America to advocate the acceptance of women as public-school teachers. Through her many books, articles, and lectures, she promoted the position and education of women in the nineteenth century. She proposed that women were intellectually equal and morally superior to men, and more compassionate and understanding than men. Women, said Beecher, have a natural affinity for children. Therefore, she contended that women would be better teachers. Once women were properly educated, they could have both a local and a national influence on society. Beecher strongly asserted, however, that women could flourish only through achievements in their own sphere of domesticity. That is, women dominated in the home because of the God-given virtues that characterized them as women. Hence, success in the classroom would be possible only if women created environments based on the conditions of the ideal American home. Furthermore, women must be properly educated on a scale with men.

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