The function of the first women's colleges in the USA is singled out. They expanded opportunities for women to get higher level of education, taking into account the fact that at that time women were not allowed to enter higher education establishments on equal footing with men. Some structural peculiarities of the first women's colleges are…

Mary Lyon was the founder of Mount Holyoke College and a pioneer in science education. She was an early proponent of the laboratory method of teaching, disseminating it throughout nineteenth-century schools. Lyon established a distinguished chemistry faculty and founded an excellent department which has trained many women chemists. (SM)

Lydia Shattuck was responsible for the excellence in science instruction at Mount Holyoke Seminary. Shattuck graduated in 1851 and remained there as a faculty member, specializing in chemistry and botany. One of the first women to join scientific societies, she helped enlarge the sphere of women engaged in scientific research. (SM)