Citizens of the nation: Women teachers in Chicago, 1830-1900

From the beginning of our nation's history, teaching has played an important role in its development and the development of its citizens. In addition, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the majority of schoolteachers were women. Thus, it was largely women who were responsible for preparing future citizens of the young democracy. Moreover, because of the higher education that was required of teachers and the fact that schools were established in cities and towns across the country, women teachers were able to build voluntary associations capable of achieving political change.;This project is a study of women, teaching, and citizenship. It uses biography to reveal the ways in which teaching led women to act as citizens. My focus is a number of women in Chicago who helped to create and benefited from a network of politically active women at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1882, Frances Willard referred to Chicago as "the paradise of exceptional women". Even when excluded from the right to vote, to sign a contract, and to own property, this group of women teachers formed their own intersecting and overlapping political cultures. And it was teaching that taught them to identify and act as citizens. It was because of their roles as teachers that they were able to become citizens within their communities and, eventually, within the nation.