By Bobbi Eggers
Catharine Beecher was the mother of women’s education in America. Thanks to her crusade, the female half of America’s population is educated. That’s a big deal! Yet today, many have never heard of her.
Catharine (her family called her Kate) was born 225 years ago on September 6, 1800 in East Hampton, NY. Life in the first half of the 19th century was quite different. The average woman had seven children during her lifetime and faced almost a 3% chance of death with each pregnancy. The female literacy rate was 35%, about half that for men. Women were not allowed to attend college. Like most girls in the early 19th century, Kate was prepared by her parents strictly for matrimony.
In 1822, Beecher was engaged to a brilliant Yale professor named Alexander Fisher. Unfortunately, he died in a tragic shipwreck off the coast of Ireland before they could marry. During her bereavement, she escaped cruel treatment from the misogynist male establishment by living with Fisher’s family in Franklin, MA. Alexander’s mother Sally, was a woman of “uncommon mathematical ability.” Under her nurturing care, Kate came to love learning and realized the pitiful state of her own education. She pointedly wrote to her father that “all the knowledge I have seems to have walked into my head.”
Beecher emerged as a crusader for women’s education. She founded Hartford Female Seminary in 1823 to provide women the education they deserved. Females would learn science, rhetoric and higher mathematics which were typically reserved to men. Kate was a pioneer advocate for women’s education along with Emma Willard and Mary Lyon. She sought to send 90,000 women teachers to the growing states in the Midwest. Beecher became a bestselling author of an advice book that made her one of the most famous women in America. At the peak of her career, she took time off to tend the family of her younger sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe. This allowed Harriet to finish her groundbreaking novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Thanks to Kate’s crusade, a population of educated women emerged in the second half of the 19th century. They were prepared to fight for women’s equality. But during much of her career, Beecher opposed female suffrage on tactical grounds. She believed that women’s substandard education and healthcare demanded immediate remedies. There is logic to her views, but her opposition was unnecessary. Eventually, Beecher embraced female suffrage.
By the end of her career, the female literacy gap was closing rapidly. Women could attend colleges, but not with men. Kate had learned to use her charm and intellect to circumvent roadblocks to female progress. In my favorite story, she found a course that interested her at Cornell college. She asked to enroll, but was told that “only men take that class.” Unfazed, she replied, “That’s fine, I prefer to take it with men.” Totally confounded, the male college president allowed her to take the course.
So, thank you and Happy 225th Birthday to the mother of women’s education in America!
Come to Lee Wilson’s free Author Talk on Wednesday, October 8 at 6:00 pm. Lee will show a visual presentation and discuss more details about Ms. Beecher’s life with a wine and cheese reception at Dogwood Books, 254 East Putnam Ave., Greenwich, CT Admission is free but registration is requested.
Lee Wilson is an award-winning biographer. Women’s Crusader: Catharine Beecher’s Untold Story, won best historical biography at the 19th Annual National Indie Book Awards and was awarded the Bronze medal for biography at the 2025 Independent Publisher’s Book Awards. Lee is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, IN and earned his MBA at Harvard Business School with first year honors. He was a consulting partner at Booz Allen, an EVP at Chase and Equitable Life and ended his career as CEO of First Capital. Lee lives on Sanibel Island in Florida and spends his summers in Greenwich where he and his wife Deb raised their three children.
