In the early 1830s, Beecher became more interested in the roles her female students would play in society. Running a home and raising a family were important, she stated, but women should also be given more responsibility and respect outside the home. She believed that teaching was the perfect profession – it allowed women to be independent and influential in their community, and it was acceptably feminine. After operating her Hartford school for eight years (1823-1831), she left it to a colleague and moved west when Lyman Beecher became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. The growing populations of the western areas of the country were creating an increased demand for teachers, and Beecher made it her mission to provide the education women needed to join the profession. She opened the Western Female Institute, which she hoped could serve as a model for a nationwide system of teacher colleges. In Cincinnati, she began a fundraising effort to support her school and the creation of similar schools, but Beecher was not well-liked in the city. Her abolitionist views were not popular in an area divided on the issue of slavery. Unable to win support of residents, enrollment in Beecher’s school steadily declined until she was finally forced to close it in 1837. She then turned to working on the famous McGuffey readers, the first nationally adopted textbooks for elementary students. That same year, she published “Slavery and Abolition with Reference to the Duty of American Females.” In a critique of abolitionism in the form of a letter to Angelina Grimke, Beecher argued that, because of the violence generated by the anti-slavery movement, women should not be involved. In this essay, she began to formulate her idea that women could have a powerful influence by creating a virtuous and harmonious home life. Literary Career Writing became Beecher’s new means of earning a living and spreading her philosophy. To encourage the spread of these ideas, Beecher published a number of books providing guidance and praise for domestic life, such as her extremely popular Treatise on Domestic Economy (1843). This was a practical and moral guide to domestic life on such topics as cooking, child rearing and general health care – a single source of household knowledge that had not existed before. The book was an incredible success, earning her national fame. According to Beecher, the mission of all women should be to form the moral and intellectual character of children, and in order to fulfill that duty, women required a quality education. Through nurturing and teaching, women could use their home life as a base from which to create change in the rest of society. Her support of the family and social hierarchy made Beecher a celebrity. From then on, Beecher traveled between homes of family and friends, supporting herself with lectures and books. The Duty of American Women to Their Country (1845) argued for free public education to protect the still-new democracy. In 1852 she founded the American Woman’s Educational Association, which aimed to send teachers west to build schools in the developing frontier. At the same time, Beecher also expanded the definition of education to include what was later termed home economics. The Domestic Receipt Book (1846) demonstrated that although she had become a traveling, professional woman who did not maintain a home, she remembered from her early years how much skill was required to efficiently run the era’s large households.

A principios da década de 1830, Beecher interesouse máis polos roles que as súas estudantes desempeñarían na sociedade. Afirmaron unha casa e criar unha familia eran importantes, pero ás mulleres tamén se lles debería dar máis responsabilidade e respecto fóra da casa. Ela cría que o ensino era a profesión perfecta: permitía ás mulleres ser independentes e influentes na súa comunidade e era aceptable feminina. Despois de operar a súa escola Hartford durante oito anos (1823-1831), deixouna a unha colega e mudouse ao oeste cando Lyman Beecher converteuse en presidente do Seminario Teolóxico de Lane en Cincinnati, Ohio. As crecentes poboacións das áreas occidentais do país estaban a crear unha maior demanda de profesores e Beecher fíxoa a súa misión proporcionar a educación das mulleres necesarias para incorporarse á profesión. Abriu o Instituto Feminino Occidental, que esperaba que servise de modelo para un sistema nacional de colexios de profesores. En Cincinnati comezou un esforzo de recadación de fondos para apoiar a súa escola e a creación de escolas similares, pero a Beecher non lle gustou moito a cidade. As súas opinións abolicionistas non foron populares nunha área dividida no tema da escravitude. Non conseguiu o apoio dos residentes, a matrícula na escola de Beecher diminuíu constantemente ata que finalmente foi obrigada a pechala en 1837. Despois volveu traballar cos famosos lectores de McGuffey, os primeiros libros de texto adoptados a nivel nacional para estudantes elementais.Ese mesmo ano, publicou "Escravitude e abolición con referencia ao deber das mulleres americanas". Nunha crítica ao abolicionismo en forma de carta a Angelina Grimke, Beecher argumentou que, debido á violencia xerada polo movemento anti-escravitude, a muller non debería estar implicada. Neste ensaio comezou a formular a súa idea de que as mulleres podían ter unha poderosa influencia creando unha vida no fogar virtuosa e harmoniosa. Carreira literaria Escribir converteuse no novo medio de Beecher para gañarse a vida e difundir a súa filosofía. Para fomentar a difusión destas ideas, Beecher publicou unha serie de libros ofrecendo orientacións e eloxios para a vida doméstica, como o seu moi popular Tratado de economía doméstica (1843). Esta foi unha guía práctica e moral da vida doméstica sobre temas como a cociña, a crianza dos nenos e a saúde xeral, unha única fonte de coñecemento do fogar que non existira antes. O libro tivo un éxito incrible, gañándose a súa fama nacional. Segundo Beecher, a misión de todas as mulleres debe ser formar o carácter moral e intelectual dos nenos e, para cumprir ese deber, as mulleres precisaron unha educación de calidade. Mediante a educación e o ensino, as mulleres poderían usar a vida doméstica como base para crear un cambio no resto da sociedade. O seu apoio á familia e á xerarquía social fixo de Beecher unha celebridade.A partir de entón, Beecher viaxou entre casas de familiares e amigos, apoiándose con clases e libros. O deber das mulleres americanas cara o seu país (1845) argumentou a educación pública gratuíta para protexer a aínda nova democracia. En 1852 fundou a American Woman 's Educational Association, que tiña como obxectivo enviar aos profesores ao oeste para construír escolas na fronteira en desenvolvemento. Ao mesmo tempo, Beecher tamén ampliou a definición da educación para incluír o que máis tarde se chamou economía doméstica. O Libro de recibo doméstico (1846) demostrou que aínda que se convertera nunha muller profesional e viaxeira que non mantiña unha casa, recordou desde os seus primeiros anos canta habilidade era necesaria para dirixir de xeito eficiente os grandes fogares da época.