Forty-eight years before women had the right to vote, they were serving on Newton’s School Committee. The Massachusetts constitution limited voting to men but omitted the word “male” as a qualification for elective office. Women noticed. Suffragists began working to get women elected (by men) onto school committees. They thought it would be the easiest public office to get.
Prior to 1840, women held no responsible position in any public school in the State. The few women who were teachers worked mainly in summer, to “spell the men” during the haying season. Following the Civil War, the number of women in education grew rapidly. In 1861, at the beginning of the war, Newton had 1,353 students. Of its 30 teachers, 7 were women, and all 8 School Committee members were men. By 1872, there were 2,452 students, 66 of the 86 teachers were women, and three women were on the 15-member school committee: Charlotte Wheeler of Newton Upper Falls, Mary Roberts of Newtonville, and Amelia F. Waters of Newton Corner (elected by the School Committee and Town Selectmen to fill a vacancy). The School Committee report of 1872 notes:
“we desire here to bear testimony to the diligence, as well as intelligence, with which our lady coadjutors have discharged their duties.”[1]
School Committee members hired teachers, conducted monthly school observations, selected books, disbursed school funds, and maintained the schoolhouses (purchased fuel, oversaw building and repairs, etc.). The number of school committee members was still the same as the number of school buildings, but school governance had become more complex with subcommittees on the high school; training schools; grammar schools; primary schools; evening schools; music; industrial drawing; drawing; textbooks; rules and regulations; and repairs and supplies.[2] School Committee members were paid a nominal amount for their work ($1,250, compared to the Superintendent’s salary of $3,000).
In…