Curriculum Redefined? A Brief History of Science in Girls' Education

Dr Katie Carpenter will talk about: In the mid-Victorian period, pioneering female educationalists established the first schools in Britain that sought to offer girls’ an education of the same standard as boys’. Notably, these schools put science on their curriculums. At a time where science was gendered as masculine, and women’s educational opportunities were marginalised, this was a radical step. This talk explores the history of these schools and examines how they negotiated the tension between science, so-called ‘domestic science’ and femininity through their teaching methods.

About our speaker:

Dr Katie Carpenter is Lecturer in Public History in the School of History at the University of Leeds. She received her PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2019, and joined Leeds in the summer of 2022. Her research explores the history of women and science.