Catharine Beecher (1800-1878)
Born in New York, Catharine Esther Beecher was an influential leader in the campaign for equal educational opportunities for women and a prolific writer on the position of women in society. Catharine was the oldest daughter in the famous Beecher family. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a prominent Presbyterian minister who advocated social and moral reform through numerous public sermons. Her younger sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the famous abolitionist play Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) that intensified Northern anti-slavery sentiment. Her younger brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was an influential Presbyterian minister who campaigned against slavery and in favor of temperance reform and women's suffrage.
After beginning her teaching career in 1821, Catharine founded the Hartford Female Seminary, a school geared specifically to provide higher education to women, in 1823. In 1832, she founded the Western Female Institute in Cincinnati, and went on to help found a number of other institutions in the Midwest that gave women access to higher education. In 1852, she established the American Woman's Educational Association to expand the number of teachers in schools on the western frontier.
In 1841, she published her most influential work, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, in which she argued that women should remain in the domestic sphere, but stressed that the domestic sphere was crucial to the well-being of American society. Although she promoted the expansion of educational opportunities for women, she was opposed to women's suffrage and political activism by women in the great reform movements of the nineteenth century, such as the anti-slavery cause.
Catharine herself never married, which creates a paradox between her personal life and views about women's proper role in society. Despite her belief that women should remain in the domestic sphere, Catharine lived a very active life outside of the home that was filled with vigorous political advocacy of more educational opportunities for women. She died in 1878.
OCP Resources
Published Works
Beecher, Catharine. Suggestions respecting improvements in education, presented to the trustees of the Hartford Female Seminary, and published at their request. Hartford: Packer & Butler, 1829.
Grimké, Angelina Emily. Letters to Catherine E. Beecher: in reply to An essay on slavery and abolitionism, addressed to A.E. Grimké, revised by the author. Boston: I. Knapp, 1838.
Beecher, Catharine. Letters to persons who are engaged in domestic service. New York: Leavitt & Trow, 1842.
Beecher, Catharine. The evils suffered by American women and American children: the causes and the remedy / presented in an address by C.E. Beecher, to meetings of ladies in Cincinnati, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and other cities. Also, An address to the Protestant clergy of the United States. New York: Harper & Bros., c1846.
Beecher, Catharine. A Treatise on domestic economy: for the use of young ladies at home and at school. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849.
Beecher, Catharine. The true remedy for the wrongs of woman: with a history of an enterprise having that for its object.> Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1851.
American Woman's Educational Association. Annual report of the American Woman's Educational Association. I-5. New York: J.D. Bedford, 1853-1857.
Beecher, Catharine. Letters to the people on health and happiness. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1855.
Beecher, Catharine. Industrial & domestic school for women. [New York?: s.n., 186-?].
Beecher, Catharine. The American woman's home, or Principles of domestic science: begin a guide to the formation and maintenance of economic, healthful, beautiful, and Christian homes. with Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: J.B. Ford, 1869.
Beecher, Catharine. Principles of domestic science: as applied to the duties and pleasures of home, a text-book for the use of young ladies in schools, seminaries, and colleges. New York: J.B. Ford and Co., 1871.
Beecher, Catharine. Woman suffrage and woman's profession. Hartford: Brown & Gross, 1871.
Beecher, Catharine. Woman's profession as mother and educator: with views in opposition to woman suffrage. Philadelphia and New York: Maclean Gibson, 1872.
Stowe, Harriett Beecher. "Catherine E. Beecher" , in Our famous women, an authorized record of the lives and deeds of distinguished American women of our times: an entirely new work, full of romantic story, lively humor, thrilling experiences, tender pathos, and brilliant wit, with numerous anecdotes, incidents, and personal reminscences. Hartford, Conn.: A.D. Worthington, 1884, p. 75-93.
Web Resources
Newman Library: Digital Collections. An American Family: The Beecher Tradition: Catharine Beecher.
PBS Online. Schoolhouse Pioneers: Catharine Beecher (1800-1878).