Women's Education: Feminism?

women historically have been held to very different standards than men in the education system. In the earliest stages, education was offered to those with the proper status. This often meant white males, who could not only afford such education, but were of the most universally accepted and promoted gender and race. This automatically negated minorities and women. In part, this denial of education to women had to do with negative attitudes in society to women’s demeanor; as stated in the lecture, “it was believed that women should not learn to read or write (let alone more complicated subjects like math and philosophy) because such knowledge distracted women from their reproductive capacities”. This is particularly interesting to me; obviously, the attitudes of society can shape the actions of a nation, via legislation in government, and in turn, can devastate generations of people unfairly, in this case, women. However, much like the racial injustice of denying an equal education to whites and blacks was remedied via a judicial decision, the blatant denial of education to women was attempted to be set straight by legislation, specifically, discrimination to women in any federally funded education program. Strongly influenced by pro-feminist organizations, this legislation would expand, much like the in depth world of education did, and branch into the realm of collegiate athletics, extra-curricular activities, clubs and other organizations. The widely known Title IX, a non-discrimination statute that makes it illegal for universities to discriminate membership to certain activities on the basis of gender, serves as a testament to the evolution of these laws.