Coeducation in the 19th Century
Joshua Chamberlain, Bowdoin Class of 1852, professor (1855-1865), and the College’s sixth president (1871- 1883), was an early advocate for coeducation in higher education. In his 1871 inaugural speech, Chamberlain makes the progressive declaration that women should join men in institutions of higher education. He asserts that women are the “appointed teacher of man, his guide, his better soul.” Chamberlain’s remarks reflect binary gender spheres in which women serve and support men. Though he argues that women have a right to education, he perpetuates the belief that men and women should occupy distinct roles. Exactly one century after Chamberlain’s address, Bowdoin graduated its first woman student and matriculated its first coeducated class.
“Bowdoin College - The New Education: President Chamberlain’s Inaugural Address” in Portland Weekly Advertiser, July 10, 1872