10. Republicans in Power, 1800

Quiz for Experiencing the American Promise: One Woman’s Quest to Provide Higher Education for Women

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 10.11

1. Unlike Emma Willard, most Americans in the early Republic believed that it was dangerous for a woman to become too intellectual because being very smart and highly educated meant that a woman had sacrificed her

kindness.

femininity.

fertility.

obedience.

Question 10.12

2. Although colleges were closed to women before 1830, for what reason did many Americans believe that girls should receive a basic elementary education?

The republican ideology that underpinned the establishment of the United States held that all children should be educated.

It was important for the United States’ international reputation that all of its citizens learn to read Latin and Greek.

Having a basic aptitude for mathematics would be useful if the girls ever had to help run a family business.

When the girls became mothers, they would be capable of positively shaping their children’s character.

Question 10.13

3. Emma Willard hoped to demonstrate that women and men had equal aptitudes for logic by making sure that all students at Troy Female Seminary excelled in

literature.

zoology.

geometry.

Latin.

Question 10.14

4. Emma Willard’s father's attitude toward female education was unusual for the early Republic because he

encouraged and nurtured his daughter's intellectual capacities.

believed both girls and boys should be apprenticed in trades.

believed public school classrooms should be segregated by sex.

insisted that girls’ education should be limited to homemaking skills like sewing.

Question 10.15

5. This essay supports which of the following historical arguments about the barriers that white women likely faced in early America?

In most early American states, women were either legally or socially excluded from practicing any profession other than teaching.

Although New England and the Middle Atlantic states supported female education, in the South few girls ever attended school.

Women who wanted to become lawyers or doctors were required to educate themselves because colleges would not accept them as students.