She was thus discouraged from aspiring to other occupations. Women were to behave demurely and remain within the domestic sphere, learning only what was necessary to become competent mothers and charming wives.
Despite this ideal, education for women did gain ground. State-funded schooling for both boys and girls began to spread in the East at the primary level in the 1830s and at the secondary level in the 1850s. Gilman's own schooling consisted of four years of education, part of them spent in the Young Ladies School of Providence, where she earned above-average grades in spelling (88) and composition (83) but below-average marks in arithmetic (69) and grammar (57).
Far more appealing to Gilman than any of these subjects were the physical fitness classes run by Dr. John P. Brooks, who advocated the healthful effects of physical movement for women. Gilman's great-aunt, Catherine Beecher, echoed this advice. But it was a minority viewpoint. Generally, the underlying idea of how to educate a woman remained the same as it had been earlier in the century. It was, as the majority saw it, necessary to educate women not for their own benefit but for the sake of increasing their value to men.
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