Emma Willard

Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870) was an American educator and advocate for women’s education. Born in Berlin, Connecticut, she became a teacher and developed influential ideas about expanding academic opportunities for girls. In 1819 she presented “A Plan for Improving Female Education” to New York’s legislature, arguing that women deserved rigorous schooling comparable to men’s. In 1821 she founded the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York, an institution that offered advanced study for young women and later became the Emma Willard School. Willard also wrote textbooks and promoted teacher training, helping shape nineteenth-century American education and widening pathways for women’s learning.