The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-11-20
COLLEGES FOR WOMEN.


Beneficial Results. ii'
Since Frederick Maurice established
Queens College in London. England
has advanced rapidly in furnishing
higher education for women. Girton
and Newman at Cambridge, and Som
erville and Lady Margarite's Halls at
Oxford, are the marks for advanced ed
ucation for the sex in England, while
Wellesley. Smith and Holyoke colleges |
in New England. Vassar and Bryn |
Mawr elsewhere. and the attachment Of
women to college work at Harvard,
Cornell and Columbia among the insti-
buttons of the East. together with the
equal rights which the sex has in the
State universities at the West are a
fair measure Of the interest now taken
in the higher education OF women in
this country. Oxford and Cambridge
in England are no more a full measure
of the interest in England than the in
situations here named are an adequate
expression Of the interest in the United
States. There are hundreds of less
noted educational institutions scattered
all over England and America where
the advanced work has been immensely
improved by the opening Of the stand
ard institutions to women. 1t is, per-
haps, thirty years since this movement
began. Queens College in London was
the pioneer institution of this kind. and
their promoters in both countries de-
serve the greatest, credit for having
opened avenues to strong and bright
women which had heretofore been
closed to them. ''t'i
Such an impetus has been given to
the higher education OF women by
these institutions that the present gen.
Grafton is already feeling their in
Auence. Miss Annie J. Clough, OF New
ham College, in speaking Of the infu-
ence Of this education upon English
woman, is careful to note the increased
fields OF usefulness which have opened
since women have been cultivated to
enter them. In England these institu-
tions connected with Oxford andkS Gam
bridge, and already begun in different
parts of the United Kingdom, have
greatly increased the teaching force Of
the country. They have also added
several new professions to those now
filled by women. Positions as convey
ancers, analytical chemists and dispen.
sers, the charge of gardening, farming
and business. the study Of medicine,
careers in art, literature and research,
have opened to women who could en-
ter upon them, and almost every kind
of intellectual and administrative work
has been undertaken by women who
were qualified for these spheres. A
large and competent body Of teachers
is already the result Of the higher edu-
cation OF woman in Great Britain.
While the sex have thus made room
for women in occupations which have
heretofore been exclusively or mainly
reserved for men. they have not failed
to bring into homes OF their own the
results of wider contact with thought
and life which have come to them from
the higher education.
The home is an important field for
the exercise of women's intelligence as
the lectureship or the professional
chair, and it is here that the women OF
position in England, or those who felt
a passion within them to do great
things, have nobly justified the oppor.
tunities extended to them.
In this country, where the freedom
of occupation is less controlled by ira
5ition, the higher education of woman
has begun to change the character Of
our social and intellectual life. The
same lines Of occupation open to them
in England are free to them in Amer
lea; but, with the larger opportunities
OF a great country, they have yet tC
make themselves felt in the general
welfare as effectively as they have OBJ
tanned recognition of their influence ir
Great Britain, The larger develop
.. ment of the higher education of womer
in our own women's colleges is too re
cent for the graduates to have fully
; made their mark in professional OF
, educational life, and yet. whoever Wis
its the schools or goes among the lates
$ applicants for professional positions
t will find that bright and thorough!
! educated women are constantly finding
r their way into new positions, and thu
r enlarging, the sphere Of their sex. Thu
q home, with us, re-absorbs large mum
) Der of the graduates Of these institu
tions, where their culture becomes tn
= center Of social and personal influence
, that touch the lives of those aroun'
i them. All over the country thes
!. bright women are thus beginning to re
+. construct and elevate social life. Tn
: college education OF American wome
h is thus restoring to thousands Of local
Q tiles the higher moral and intellectus
: society which was formerly delightfu
4 feature of the smaller New Englan
towns No one can understand, VIII
!. has not known the eagerness wit
- which the American girls have re
7 sponded to the opportunity for highe
!, education. the extent and the variety {
the best sort which has thus been o
fered 10 women and is now distribute