Arts, Culture and Education

Mary McLeod Bethune with girls from the Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona, c. 1905. Public Domain.

Women have played a major role in shaping American arts, cultures, and education. Women like Alice Austen made careers in photography while others like Judith Baca became painters. Baca is famous for her mural Great Wall of Los Angeles. Other women became teachers, writers, principals, sculptors, students, and more. Despite their marginalization from higher-education and other opportunities (such as apprenticeships), many women sought out opportunities to learn and express themselves.

Women of color, in particular, fought even harder for access to resources. In southern states before the Civil War, it was illegal to teach enslaved people to read or write. African Americans continued to fight for equal access through the 19th and into the 20th century. There are a number of important places that speak to the struggle for access to these social institutions, including the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas and the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House in Texas.

Despite their marginalization from these fields, women created spaces to express their creativity through art, writing, and music. Their dedication to these pursuits speaks to the importance of art, culture, and education in American society.