Phipps Seminary Showed Commitment to Higher Education for Women

Abstract

Proposing the idea of an all-female educational institution in the 1830s, Caroline Phipps was met with heavy opposition from Albion's leading citizens who favored an institution for boys and girls. Pushing forward with her theory that "it is better to teach boys and girls in separate schools," the Phipps Union Seminary became the second institution of its kind in the United States after Emma Willard's school at Troy, NY.