Article 13: Tsuda Umeko and a Transnational Network Supporting Women’s Higher Education in Japan During the Victorian Era

Having limited access to colleges and universities offering women the same educational opportunities available to men, elite women of the nineteenth century crossed national borders for advanced study and teaching opportunities. The career of Tsuda Umeko, founder of one of the first private institutions of higher education for women in Japan,¹ leader in English-language instruction in Japan, author, and first president of the Tokyo YWCA, demonstrates the significance of a transnational network of advocates for women’s education. Tsuda forged a network of personal and professional contacts in the United States and Great Britain that enabled her to envision, fund, and staff an elite academy for women in Japan. In this study I analyze Tsuda’s development of a transnational network of supporters and argue that it was made possible by her skill in articulating shared values of educational reform.