New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-11-05
VONEN IND HIGHER EDUCATION

A speaker at q recent college celebration
advanced the proposition that the day has come
when we should no longer say, Here has man
set I'D an intellectual standard to which woman
must conform in order to be his equal" but
rather. "Here has woman set the standard, and
man, to be her equal, must come up to it,"
There is profound truth and significance In the
suggestion 1t has been illustrated within the
last decade by events that generation uy0
would have startled the whole brood OF mascu-
line academies into commissions OF alarm and
indignation. As Miss Helen Bancroft declared
the other day in memorable address at Chau-
tauqua the higher education OF women is still
in its infancy yet the very obstacles placed
in their way seem to have inspired them to
strenuous endeavor, and Goldsmiths Oft-quoted
line merits literal application in the case OF
more than one fair small head which its owner
has packed with knowledge to the envy and
wOnderment of male competitors
The news that the women of Baltimore with
little outside assistance, have raised the
$780, 900 which the trustees of Johns Hopkins
University imposed as requisite to the ad-
mission Of women to the projected medical
school, denotes an important step in advance.
known as conservative among the conserva-
tive. Its faculty list comprises the names OF
several earnest educators notably that OF DR..
Herbert Is. Adams, who have earned an envi-
able reputation by their advocacy Of new meth
DDS and ideas. But scholastic pride has pre-
vented that free extension of it's usefulness
which its honorable prestige renders especial
" desirable and the task set before the women
of Baltimore was probably selected less from
motives of advantage than because of the OBJ
vious mprobability OF it's fulflment. Who will
now undertake to prescribe limit for the
achievement OF women in this direction? With
Millicent Fawoett carrying off the Senior
Wrangler hOnors at Oxford, Meme Muriel DoW1e
turning the heads of the Royal GeOgHphers
with her vivacty and learning, Mile Bilcesco
starting quarrels among the Paris lawyers as to
the robe in which she should receive the first
law degree conferred On a woman, and Nine.
Kempin coming all the way from Zurich to
force American law-schoOls to admit students
of her own sex, it cannot be said that mans
intellectual pre-eminence must remain I'M
rivalled, if unequalled. At Ann Arbor, where
coeducation has been practised with the
happiest results, 2s.1 per cent of the students
Ill tne l-tcIdTy department. duu LII pei SCAie
of the students in all departments, during
1885, were women. 1t may be years before q
similar statement will be possible concerning
the other great centres of learning. But every
true friend of wOmans education believes the
day will surely come.
1t is gratifying to note the emphatic, and in
deed inevitable, recognition among women of
the fact that higher education is means and
not an end. Probably one-half the opposition
they have encountered has sprung from the
old fashioned notions az to wOman's sphere ;;
These notions are well enough in contemplat.
ing for the sex more humane, and therefore
more beneficent, mission, than the mere pur-
suit of snowy attachments for their own sake
or for the sake Of the distinction implied.
! boarded knowledge is as vain as boarded gold,
and their ready acquiescence in this truth con-
stitutes their best title TO the freest and fullest
participation in all the advantages our colleges
have to offer. 1t is neither sensible nor useful
to insist that women have proved their claim
to equal breadth Of faculty with men. They
have, however, shown a disposition to excel in
the wise use of what they possess and ability
to instruct men by the force of excellent ex-
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