author
M. Carey (Martha Carey) Thomas
1857–1935
A forceful advocate for women’s education, she helped shape Bryn Mawr College into one of the country’s most demanding academic institutions. Her life also reflects the complicated mix of reform, ambition, and prejudice that marked parts of the progressive era.
1 Audiobook
Education of Women
by M. Carey (Martha Carey) Thomas
About the author
Born in Baltimore in 1857, M. Carey Thomas was an American educator, suffragist, and linguist who became the first dean and then the second president of Bryn Mawr College. She pushed for rigorous academic standards for women at a time when higher education often offered them a narrower path than men.
Thomas studied in Europe after facing barriers to advanced study in the United States, and she brought that seriousness back to Bryn Mawr. During her years as president, from 1894 to 1922, the college grew in reputation and became known for demanding scholarship and graduate study.
She also supported women’s rights, including the suffrage movement, and remained a prominent public figure until her death in 1935. At the same time, modern accounts of her legacy note that she held racist and anti-Semitic views, making her an important but deeply complicated figure in American educational history.