This blog begins a new series, edited by Kaitlin Mills, dedicated to exploring the different higher learning opportunities, both formal and informal, available globally to women from the nineteenth century onwards.

Higher learning

A basic education is something that has long been held as available only to a particular set of women, in a particular country, only in specific circumstances. The history and evolution of the Bluestocking philosophy from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century reveals how, in its more informal uses, ‘bluestocking’ was a derogatory term which mocked highly educated women.

Higher education or higher learning – that is, education set above that basic or foundational level – was even more difficult to access. This was particularly true during nineteenth century and has continued through to the twentieth-first century.

Higher learning has been broadly defined as the education women were able to source formally – through institutions, universities or trade businesses, or informally – through oral education, traditional education or family apprenticeships, that offered education beyond that offered at a primary or secondary level.

As higher learning was education that was only sourced after primary or secondary education, both of which were only just becoming formalised from the nineteenth century, and only for certain women, this blog series explores the question: how did this access affect the opportunities available for women?

In this blog series, we and other contributors will investigate the ties between women’s educational opportunities in higher learning from the nineteenth century onwards. Authors explore how this access varied in Australia and globally. We will investigate if this reveals any patterns than the traditional nation-specific narrative.

Please see our call for proposals below.

Women’s education

Dr Cally Jetta will open the series with a blog on the failing formula of remote schooling for First Nations children in Australia. The historical and contemporary system of remote teaching in Australian schools has had broad impacts on the enthusiasm for higher learning and teaching. It also has and continues to have longer term impacts on remote and Aboriginal education.

Professor Tanya Fitzgerald will explore women’s access to higher education in Aotearoa/New Zealand between 1877 and 1920. In particular, Fitzgerald will focus on the gendered curriculum and how the universities seemed content to offer women only a manual training curriculum. This is demonstrated through the research on Home Science studies, that preserved women’s ‘natural’ occupation in the domestic subjects rather than academic subjects.

The series will progress with a discussion of the different higher learning opportunities women had in nineteenth century Britain. In this blog, Kaitlin Mills will explore the links between women’s social class and how it impacted the higher learning opportunities available.

‘Women’s Education’: Call for Proposals

This blog is the first in a series seeking to explore the different higher learning opportunities, including both formal and informal, that women had available globally from the nineteenth century onwards.

The editorial team welcome pitches from researchers at all levels to contribute towards this blog series.

We welcome contributions relating towards nation-specific higher learning opportunities available to women or a transnational approach, those seeking to meet the theme directly, or propose alternative approaches.

If you would like to contribute to this series please provide a draft title, an abstract and a short biographical note.

Kaitlin Mills is a Master of Research student at the University of Southern Queensland. Kaitlin’s research examines the different educational opportunities available to working-class, middle-class and elite women during nineteenth century Britain. Kaitlin is currently completing an internship with the Australian Women’s History Network, providing editioral assistance on the VIDA blog.

Copyright remains with individual authors who grant VIDA holding a perpetual, world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce and promote content. For permission to re-publish any VIDA blog post, in whole or in part, please contact the managing editors at auswhn@gmail.com.au