Beecher, Catharine

Beecher, Catharine (Esther)

(born Sept. 6, 1800, East Hampton, N.Y., U.S.—died May 12, 1878, Elmira, N.Y.) U.S. educator who popularized and shaped a conservative movement to both elevate and entrench woman's role in the domestic sphere. Daughter of the minister and temperance activist Lyman Beecher and sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, she helped found the Hartford Female Seminary (1823) and other organizations devoted to women's education. Her popular Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841) helped standardize domestic practices while reinforcing the belief that a woman's proper place was in the home.