The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-11-24

college w0mza's marrying As . per cent
OF other women marry Il IS concluded that
there is one-fhird less chance Of college
women graduates marrying than OF those
who have not sought higher education
Various causes are assigned for this ten
dency OF the e~oIiege-bred woman 20 pad
die her oE-n canoe. One is that among the
graduates Is always a large number who
would never marry n way, those who
do not think marriage wonan's highest
aim, and believe they can do more for
themselves and the world generally by
remaining single. Another cause is that
by reason OF a college education they be-
come in a Measure independent. do not
have to rely upon a husband for support,
and secure positions where they are well
paid. the work in which gives them little
tine or inclination TO think Of matrimony.
It is also said that a college education
advances a woman's ideals as 10 what a
husband should be. makes her more par
ticular and results finally in her getting
no one, through her desire 10 win some
body who viii come up TO her standard.
There is no doubt that girls who seem
to be cut out for old maids take naturally
TO literary pursuits and think more or
study thar of society. II is not surprising
that, believing they can do better than
become housewives and mothers, they go
20 college and, having become Wen edu-
Gated, are even less inclined to matrimony
after ~graGuatio than before. 1t is per-
hans true that the earlier women who.
ventured out upon the collegiate sea were
those Of slightly advanced ideas. VIC had
a mission to perform that was not mater
nal and who Iooked upon man as a not
very essential factor in working out the
problem of life. Certain II is that a COM
mon picture of the college woman once
was that OF an independent, If not some
what masculine, young person who never
glanced at one OF the opposite sex through
her glasses without expressing In her face
the conviction hat she held him to be
rather insignificant and Of course mental
ly inferior to herself.
This, 10 a great extent. is changing
The young American girls who go to col
lege nowadays do so, not because they
believe they will always have to earn their
own living or because they look upo mar
rage with misgivings. but because this is
an age of culture and learning and the de-
mands of the. period require something
more than the fimsy accomplishments
OF the fashionable school. The members
of our colleges for woman are not born
old maids, or prudes. or people with ad-
yanced notions about e~mancipating the
sex, but good. wholesome young American
girls who seek a liberal education because
il is fortunately popular and because the
latest fashion is to give more attention
TO the head than TO the toes. This has
perhaps wrought a change In the charac-
t~eristics OF the modern college woman
and il is very probable that the proportion
Of those marrying will gradually increase.
Naturally il will never reach the average
of those who are not so highly educated,
but it will be sufficiently large to remove
apprehensions of higher education among
women ever seriously interfering with
home life. or of its noticeably restricting
the growth of the country in the matter
Of population.