BEALE, Dorothea 1831-1906

PERSONAL: Born 1831, in London, England; died 1906; daughter of Miles (a surgeon) and Dorothea (Complin) Beale. Education: Attended lectures at Gresham College; attended a finishing school in Paris, France; coursework at Queen's College, Cambridge.

CAREER: Queen's College, Cambridge, Cambridge, England, began as instructor in mathematics, advanced to senior teacher, 1849-57; Clergy Daughters' School, Casterton, Westmoreland, England, headmistress, 1857; Cheltenham Ladies College, Cheltenham, England, principal, 1858-1906. Founder of St. Hilda's College, Cheltenham, 1885, and St. Hilda's Hall, Oxford, 1893.

MEMBER: Headmistresses' Association (president, 1875-77), Teachers' Guild, Kensington Society, Central Society for Women's Suffrage (vice president), London Society for Women's Suffrage.

WRITINGS:

The Student's Text-book of English and General History, Bell & Daldy (London, England), 1858, revised edition, 1862.

A Report on the Education of Girls, Bell & Daldy (London, England), 1866.

(With Lucy H. M. Sousby and Jane Francis Dove) Work and Play in Girls' Schools, Longmans (New York, NY), 1898.

Literary Studies of Poems, New and Old, G. Bell & Son (London, England), 1902.

History of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, 1853-1901, Cheltenham Ladies' College (Cheltenham, England), 1904.

Addresses to Teachers, Longmans (New York, NY), 1909.

SIDELIGHTS: Dorothea Beale was a leading women's educator and suffragette in England during the nineteenth century. Born at a time when women received little formal education, she helped to dramatically improve women's accessibility to a quality education. Born into a religious and bookish family, Beale received little formal education, but was strongly encouraged to study at home. Largely self-educated, she was a serious, determined, and devout student who even studied Euclid on her own. With the opening of Queen's College in 1848 as a series of lectures intended primarily for governesses, Beale found her calling. After receiving six subject certificates—women could not yet receive degrees then—she became a tutor in mathematics and Latin. Staunchly believing in teaching as divine ministry, she undertook a position first at Casterbridge's Clergy Daughter's School, then as lady principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she would remain until her death in 1906.

Unlike her famous contemporary, Frances Mary Buss, it was the education of girls from her own upper-middle class that Beale worked tirelessly to improve. Though she founded two additional teacher training colleges—St. Hilda's College, Cheltenham, and St. Hilda's Hall, Oxford—Beale always thought of women's position in terms of duties rather than rights. More conservative than other pioneers in women's education and following patriarchal religious beliefs to the core—teaching Scripture was her favorite subject—she nevertheless strongly believed that girls deserved to be taught to develop their minds to their fullest potential, despite believing that they still must play a subordinate role in society. It was Beale's concern for women's education that led her to found two women's colleges and serve as principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College. Her writings, too, are addressed primarily to teachers, and are part of the reform to standardize women's education.

In addition to her work as an educator, Beale was an avid suffragette, participating in the Kensington Society, which successfully petitioned Parliament to add an amendment to the 1867 Reform Act that would have given women in England the right to vote. Though the reforms did not pass, she continued her activities for the women's rights cause through the London Society for Women's Suffrage and as vice president of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Kamm, Josephine, How Different from Us: A Biography of Miss Buss and Miss Beale, Bodley Head (London, England), 1958.

Raikes, Elizabeth, Dorothea Beale of Cheltenham, Constable (London, England), 1908.

Steadman, F. Cecily, In the Days of Miss Beale: A Study of Her Work and Influence, E. J. Burrows (London, England), 1931.*