Lyddie at Oberlin: Would the College Have Suited Her?

Lyddie's dream

At the end of Katherine Paterson's novel Lyddie, Lyddie Worthen resolves to leave Vermont for an education at Oberlin College in Ohio. She might have been surprised: in 1846, life at Oberlin could be as restrictive for women as the mills at Lowell.

A coed college, with separate paths

Devout Christians founded Oberlin. They believed men and women both had a part in spreading religious values, so they made it the first coed college. But while Oberlin would "take a woman just like a man," as Lyddie puts it (chapter 23), it prepared the sexes for different roles.

• Women were expected to become wives, mothers and teachers.
• They could earn a bachelor's degree, but most chose the "ladies' course" instead — without the advanced political theory, ancient Greek and Latin thought necessary only for "male" professions: law, medicine and the ministry.

A disciplined life

Oberlin's routine would have been as demanding as Lowell's. Outside class and sleep, students studied, worked (every student had a campus job) or worshipped.

• Religion was compulsory, believer or not, with daily prayer meetings and chapel.
• Women were seen as naturally more religious — but also as the "weaker sex," more easily corrupted. So a special code of conduct "protected" them: no leaving their rooms in study hours, no recreation (play) on Sundays, no socializing with men without permission.
• Lyddie, a free spirit who "cared nothing for being a lady or being religious" (chapter 12), would have found it hard.

Would they have let her in?

Women applicants had to send a letter "certifying their present attainments, character, and promise of usefulness." Lyddie is hardworking, ambitious and determined. But the Concord Corporation had branded her a "troublemaker" and fired her for "moral turpitude" (chapter 21). If Oberlin had learned that, would a college so concerned with women's behavior have given her the benefit of the doubt? Her Oberlin career might have ended before it began.

About the author

Dr. John Frederick Bell is an assistant professor of history at Assumption University and the author of Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race (2022).

Sources

Based on "Lyddie: Voices from the Field — Chapter 23, Oberlin," by John Frederick Bell, Lowell National Historical Park; published by the National Park Service and in the public domain; rewritten in hubnx's own words. The author's portrait is not reproduced. The source spells the novelist's first name "Katharine"; she is Katherine Paterson.