Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-15
WOMAN SCHOLASTIC TR1UMpHs.

The case of Miss Helen Fawcett, daughter
of the late Postmaster General Fawcett, who,
in the recent examinations at Cambridge,
was awarded place above the regular
senior wrangler in the mathematical tripos,
is supported by two similar cases, one on
each side of the ocean. Miss Margaret
| Afford, q neice of Dean Afford, won the
first place in the classical tripos at Cam
bridge, while the Sargent prize at Harvard,
for the best material translation of one of
Horace's odes was won by Miss Reed.
These events which give the educational
honors of the year to the women, make
mince meat of the old theory about the
mental characteristics of women being of
different texture and more limited abilities
than the masculine qualities. In Grant
Aliens romance, "The Tents OF Shem," one
of the heroines is represented as making
world wide sensation by winning second
place in the examinations, where Miss
Fawcett and Miss Afford have carried off
their honors. Heretofore it has been the
custom of those who upheld the theory Of
the mental incapacities of woman, to ex-
plain such examples as those of George
Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Maria
Mitchell, as exceptions who gain promin-
ence by their contrast to the rest of the sex.
But here are three cases OF young women, no
doubt exceptional themselves, who are
brought into competition with exceptional
students OF the other sex and beat them in
the competitions which of all known educa-
tional tests require the closest application,
the severest reasoning powers and the ut
most capacity of mental endurance. Instead
Of turning society agog, by taking second or
third place, like the young lady in the
romance, they make the revolution of re-
ceived ideas more striking by taking each
of them the first place over all masculine
rivals.
1t needs no more instances of this sort to
prove that the difference in mental quail
tiles, which social theories ascribe to the
natural limitations of women, are really
differences in education and environment.
Some women have more frmness, foresight
and determination than some men. and
others have less. But what are called the
feminine characteristics are without ques-
tion the product of the training and social
laws surrounding young women, which
make the development of these character
istics inevitable. Put man in corsets and
petticoats from his fifteenth year; teach him
that conventionality is society's first law;
instruct him that his greatest triumph OF
life is to look pretty, and in all respects
bind him down by the stereotyped ideas
that are dignifed by the term of feminine
education. The result will certainly be
that mental abilities will be developed of
the same grade as those which now qualify
one-half the world, ''to suckle fools and
chronicle small beer" Give women for q
single generation the chances of education
and mental enlargement that men have, and
we have such demonstrations as that af-
forded BY Miss Fawcett, Miss Afford and
Miss Reed of their mental equality with
the best male scholars.
This does not at all imply that women are
10 cast aside feminine employments. The |
physical differences and functions of sex are
obvious. Even with regard to female suf-
frage the fact is brought out that the careful
training of women, to be limited and trivial
in mental qualities, may have disqualified
them for the faithful performance of the
duties of citizenship. But it will be very
in the consideration of the so-caIled
feminine qualities of mind, to recognize the
complete demonstration of the fact that these
qualities are the results of training and not
Lhe products of nature.