Stuff You Missed in History Class cover image

Ellen Swallow Richards

Stuff You Missed in History Class

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MIT's First Women's University

In 1871, MIT admitted its first woman student. She tried to make herself as unthreatening as possible and demonstrate that while she was doing something considered to be unwumingly by attending the university, she still had a lot of the traits and skills that were expected of a woman. It may feel disheartening to think that she was having to act out feminine stereotypes to smooth her way at the university but she also saw this as a means to an end. Her father died four days after being struck by a train in March of 1871.

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