The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-03-01
a New Knock at an Old Door.

A New Knock at an Old Door.
Under the picturesque title GA New
Knock at an Old Door, Lucia Gilbert Run
kle writes in the March Century Magazine
of the educational privileges now extended
to women. These are not as wide as they
ought to be, but they have greatly broadened
within very recent years. The very periodi-
cal publication in which the article appears
contains papers by five other women. The
paper in particular question is both an
historical sketch and statement of the pre-
sent facilities for educating girls. 1t is but
ninety years ago that the first serious de-
mand was made in England for the higher
education of women. To day women take
prizes at Oxford and Cambridge. and have
fourshing universities of their own.
On this side of the water great progress
has also been made. It was one of the first
cares of the Pilgrim Fathers to establish
schools, and girls were allowed to attend
them two hours a day, though afterwards
the rule was so far relaxed in spirit of lib
crafty as to permit their presence all day
long in summer, when the big boys would
be working at home. In 1926, after dis
cussion of three years, the city of Boston
established a high school for girls on the
model of its admirable Latin school for bows
but such an army of young misses came
knocking for admission that the city fathers
were terrified and incontinently turned the
girls and their teachers out and locked the
doors of the school building. Since that day
the multiplication of American high schools
and colleges for young women is familiar to
all, but the Century writer gives some inter
esting notes of the opening of colleges to
girls in England.
SIT is, perhaps, % years." she says, "since
the English advocates of the higher educa-
ton of women began to feel that their edu-
cational advantages could never equal those
Of men, until not only the subjects taught
should be the same, but the teachers of
equal and equally acknowledged ability" In
the course of 10 years this feeling brough
about the opening to women of the Cam
bridge local examinations, which are simply
for standing or grade in scholarship, without
reference to degree. A little later the ia
nous Girton college was founded, its object
being ''to hold in relation to girls schools
and to home teachings, position analogous
to that occupied by the universities toward
the public schools for boys and, 'sto obtain
for the students of the college, admission to
the examinations for degrees of the universe
ty of Cambridge, and generally to place the
college in connection with that university
with the understanding that the immediate
instruction should he given daily by the pro-
fessors, lecturers and fellows of the colleges
Of the university proper.
Girton college went into operation with
six students, in a hired building, in October,
1869. 1t now has building of its own, and
in the first 10 years Of its existence it re-
corded the admission of Sc candidates, of
whom 10 graduated and II passed the exam
nations which qualify for the degree Of
bachelor of arts These examinations, how
ever, simply fixed A. standard of honor for
the women, and it was not until 1881 that
the liberal action of the senate of the uni
versity placed the women students of Cam
bridge for all practical purposes on an equal
footing with the men. Newman Hall was
erected for the accommodation of young wom-
EN- coming to Cambridge to avail themselves
of the new opportunities in 1876, and Newn-
ham hostel was afterwards added. The two
constitute Newman college, which to-day
oyerflows with Students
Following the Cambridge success came
the opening of Lady Margaret hall and Som
erville college at Oxford, the free admission
of women to the examinations of the univer-
sity of London, and the granting of liberal
opportunities on the part of Edinburgh,
Dublin, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Durham and
St. Andrews For several years the uni
versity of London tried the experiment of a
special examination for women, with a cur
riculum framed in supposed Difference to
special feminine needs. The successes
which were won by women in the examina-
tfons, however, turned out to be all in the
old line of classics, science, mathematics
and literature, which belong to an ordinary
course of liberal education, and not to any
of the selected studies which were presumed
to be especially appropriate for them. A dis
tinctly feminine examination was Just the
thing the women did not want, for they de-
sired to have their knowledge and intellect
ual cultivation tested by precisely the same
standards that were applied to men, without
any particular tenderness or favor by reason
of their sex. In 1877, therefore, after much
discussion, a new charter was procured adj
f1iftfpnr tuor lxr tta e.
as men to all the degrees in all the faculties
OF arts, laws, medicine, science and music.
The number of women who have come up
each year for matriculation and graduation
has constantly increased, and some of their
successes have been remarkable. The gold
medal in anatomy was won last year by
woman, and another came out first in men,
tai and moral philosophy. The proportion
of women who pass well in examination is
much greater than of men, but this is ac-
counted for by the fact that the women are
select students who have real enthusiasm
for their work, while many of the young
men go through the undergraduate course
in perfunctory sort of way, merely as a
preparation for professional studies. At
Cambridge, also, the women have held their
own with the men in such non-effeminate
studies as the metaphysics of Aristotle and
the philosophy of Plato, and the question of
their physical ability to compete with their
brethren is settled by the fact that the apart
ment thoughtfully set apart at Girton as
hospital for the delicate women who were to
break down under the strain of constant
brain-work, has never yet been used except
as room for examinations.
The conservative English church even
looks approvingly upon the new departure
in favor Of giving women university edu-
cation, and at recent distribution of prizes
at the Oxford higher local examination, the
archbishop of Canterbury expressed his
great satisfaction that opportunities for the
highest instruction were so rapidly opening
to young women. The battle for equal edu-
cation OF the sexes, if not for co-education,
seems to have been fought and won. Co-ed-
ucatlon, the Century writer insists, is simply