Which was the first American college or university to award a degree to a woman, who was the graduate and when was the award made?

lanfranco

I believe that might have been Lucy Stone, who graduated from Oberlin in my home state of Ohio in 1847. Oberlin, from its founding, was remarkably welcoming. It educated many Black students long before they were able to enroll at other schools. http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/OYTT-images/LucyStone.html [Apr 30 05 5:21 PM] lanfranco writes: I should add that Mount Holyoke College, the oldest of the prestigious "Seven Sisters" schools for women, was founded in 1837. However, it began as a "seminary" and didn't receive collegiate status until the 1880's. By that time other colleges and universities had graduated women. Apr 30 05, 5:14 PM

bloomsby

Many thanks, Lanfranco. Can one assume that awarding degrees to women at Oberlin was something that happened on an regular, presumably annual, basis from 1847 onwards? My reason for asking is in Europe there were a handful of isolated, "one-off" awards (at a very, very small number of universities) to women, starting with the doctorate awarded to Laura Bassi Verati at Bologna in 1732. Apr 30 05, 5:46 PM

lanfranco

Oberlin was founded in 1833 and was the first co-educational college in America, so, yes, the awarding of degrees to women was a regular event. Oberlin may, in fact, have graduated a few women before Lucy Stone, but she is definitely the school's most famous early alumna. Incidentally, I'm not certain, but I think the first doctorate awarded to a European woman may have gone to Elena Cornaro-Piscopio, at the University of Padua, sometime in the late 17th century. That has always interested me, because there's a story that Padua had a woman on its medical faculty back in the 13th or 14th century. Apr 30 05, 6:04 PM

bloomsby

Many thanks for the additional information. I'll look into the case of Elena Cornaro-Piscopio. As for women teaching at universities in the Middle Ages it's often very difficult to find out the exact status of the women, in particular, whether they were actually appointed or standing in for a their fathers, and if so, in what basis. [Apr 30 05 7:36 PM] bloomsby writes: Lanfrano, I'm most grateful. I've gone back and amended one of my quizzes accordingly. It's a mystery to me that this award in 1678 is, apparently not at all well known in northern Europe, despite the fact that Elena Cornaro-Piscopia is commemorated in a stained glass window at Vassar. I imagine part of the trouble may be that until relatively recently achievements of women were studied unsytematically, if at all ... :( Apr 30 05, 6:45 PM

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