Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-17
WOMAN ISADVANCING
Julia Ward Howe Tells What the Sex
Has Gained in half a Century.
WOMAN FIFTY YEARS AGO ANDNOW
Is Woman Less a Woman Because She is
More a Cit1zen2
TIE EFFECTS OF COLLEGE EDUCATION
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| WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.1
As these questions have been stated for
me to treat of, the most difficult clause
stands first in order.
A moral advance is not so easily made
sure of as is one in education, or in physl-
cal condition. The deep things of the heart
do not float on the surface of the commu-
nifty. 1t is not easy to say at any time how
much OF the vice of the world escapes detec-
ton, nor how much of its virtue fails of re-
cognition. Yet, to a certain extent, the tree
may be known by its fruits. We may infer
a higher moral condition from better social
state.
When 1 remember the world as knew
it, 40 or even 30 years ago, and compare
these recollections with what see to-day,
the moral advance made by society appears
to me unmistakable, and in this advance
women have been not only participators,
but active agents. This is not to say that
there were not many good women in tine
time of which speak, nor that there are
not many bad ones now, But the position
of women has essentially changed since that
time.
In this country, of which we can speak
with the greatest certainty, the whole ideal
of womanhood has been lifted bodily, and
placed upon secure elevation. How
should it be otherwise where freedom has
given woman room to grow and expand TO
her full stature, and where the cruel gives
of servile superstition have been stricken
from her intellectual faculties?
No creature can be noble that is forced
into an apologize position. The first sinner,
who stole the forbidden fruit, and led the
man to taste it. Who can tell how severely
ancient myIhus may have reacted upon
the position of woman? Not the Hebrew
Scriptures alone, but others of tie Oriental
religions, threw the burden of the worlds
evil upon womankind. Philosophers of our
own day who have become enamored of
these ancient faiths have endeavored, in
their way, to set forth this mean ard un-
generous doctrine, and to maintain with the
followers of Buddha that the evil principle,
throughout creation, is the female. From
the Buddhistic point of view this doctrine
has indeed its logical justification.
woMAN's EDUCATIONAL ADVANCE.
If as this assumes, existence is an evil,
then the great part which women bear in
the production of life is primarily an evil.
Has not our Christianity put all these cob
| webs to flight, with its wholesome showing
|
the genius of Schopenhauer will not efface
the sacred image of the mother and her
babe, to have in its place the bootless pres
ence of an infinite nothing.
The question Of woman's educational ad-
vance might almost appear superhuous in
day in which the ancient barriers no longer
cross the onward path OF the women who
would know something.
The high schools and colleges Of the coun-
try, once closed against women, are now in
great measure open to them. Their record
in these institutions shows their studious
zeal and capacity. After and beyond this
scholastic training. the education of practi-
cal life. is now vouchsafed them. in the
variety which corresponds with the variety
of their gifts and predictions.
"What Will He Do With It?'' is the title
of one of Mr.. Bulwer's novels. The question,
"What will she do with it?' has often re-
tarded the granting of the higher education
to woman. We of to-day can answer: "She
is doing good work with it. Thorough in
tellectuaI training is making plain to her
the laws which underlie her most gracious
instincts, giving her the rationale of the
poetic saying that
"spirits are not finely touched
But to fine issues"
The pursuit of the higher education for
women has been met by two grave difficult
ties-yiz., the fear that its emancipation
would react unfavorsbly upon their moral
nature, and the persuasion that severe men,
tai application would impair the physical
condition of the mothers Of the race.
The first of these foregone conclusions
springs from the tyrannical instinct which
is at certain stages of society the leading
force among human tendencies. Not men
only, but women also, wishing to command,
naturally desire that others should be in
capacltated from sharing their rule. The
surest way to do this is to keep for them
selves the secrets of the knowledge which is
power. Statecraft and priestcraft have
closely allied themselves with these views,
and in our days a sort of frank craft" has
done what it could in the same way.
THE RIGHT TO VOTE.
The heroic men who have vindicated the
cause of human freedom have brought soci-
ETY. out of this rut of fear and repression.
They have shown, and history has shown
with them, that the true danger of society
lies in ignorance, and not in intelligence
The Channings, Garrisons, Phillips, have
made the atmosphere all clear and bright
abont us. Before their time, the sanity
women of the Puritans and of the Quakers,
and in their time, the brave women of the
anti-slaVery movement, have aided in tramp
ling out the embers of the old inquisitorial
fires. And to-day, the women of the suffrage
movement may point to Ann Hutchinson,
Maria Weston Chapman, Harriet Martineau,
and host of others, and ask whether a
woman is less q woman because more a citl-
zen, less fit for home duties because she has
learned to apprehend rightly the relation of
these duties to the State?
The question of woman's physical i'm
provement comes last in my list of queries
I mention it here as being closely allied to
the topic of extended education.
The demand that the college curriculum
should be as free to women as to men called
forth from members of the medical profess
sion an indignant protest All the ills that
flesh is heir to would visit them and their
posterity if this demand should be granted.
Insanity, sterility, deformity, would af1ict
the college-bred women. Either they would
stay the men fatally in the race for acade-
mic honors, or, the effort to keep up with
these would shipwreck the health of the
young girls for life.
In spite of these threats, coming from
high quarters, the demand was perseVered
in, granted, and availed Of.
What followed? The inevitable conclu-
sion that young women are as we'll able to
bear the strain of college studies as young
men are.
1t also appeared that if some girls are
physically disqualified for sustained intel
lectual labor, a certain proportion OF the
young men are subject to the same limita-
tion. Gases of breaking down among the
male undergraduates came to be observed
and reported, Non omnia possumus omnes
We can't all go to college, men and wo-
men of us, but many women can and should
60. And, thank heaven, they did 20, and
still continue to do so.