El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-06


er education units woman for matri-
mony has not been settled by the
world at large although there is less
prejudice against women's colleges ev-
cry year. The sweet little woman who
is proud and whose friends are proud
that she cannot discuss politics or
philosophy or business however gets
more thon her due of praise for not
only is she adored of many men but
of the women, who think praise and
sometimes envy her her gentle. placid
existence unburdened with any heav-
Ter responsibility than the success of
her kitchen ana the physical welfare
of the baby. She has popular senti-
ment with her. has this woman of do
mesticity, and is excused for all of the
things she does not do because she
does the primary things SO devotedly-
On the other hand the college woman
wife's best efforts to govern her house
and babies intellectually are made the
butt of many irreverent jibes and
jokes. However, she enjoys the jokes
immensely herself and SO fortunately
her feelings are not hurt. This fact
| in itself points out one of her advan-
| tages over her sister of less learning.
| Higher education seems to develop all
the sense of humor there is in girl
and she can be good natured over de-
feat and criticism more easily than
to jokes.
The college woman is steadily prov
ing her usefulness. 1t is easy to show
that in many cases she can do all that
the absorbedly domestic woman does,
and something more. In both cases
there are other sides than the two
presented. The domestic woman may
he untidy unthrifty. sickly. morbid or
narrow minded while the colleges
sometimes turn out nervous. impracti-
cal women so in love with their own
learning that they are selfiShly indif-
ferent to the daily welfare OF their
homes But. taking the best type of
the purely domestic woman and the
best type of the college pred woman
and there is no question as to whose
is the advantage. The college wo-
mans breadth of view her intelligence
of science. economics, books. art and
philosophy help her in every detail of
her household duties. from cooking
breakfasts. watching the plumbing.
cleaning house and sending the child
rem off to school, to the best dispense
ton of her Inequalities, the choice of
her friends and the welcome she gives
to the friends of her home. She is
nearer the truth in every phase of her
activities.
Miss Mary Roberts, associate profess
sor of sociology at Leland Stamford
has been collecting comparative statis-
tics of the college and non-cOllege wo-
men in matrimony and has reached
most interesting conclusions.
Her first statement is that the col
lege woman marries two years later in
life than her sister who has stayed at
home. the average for college women
being twenty-SiX years as against the
twenty-four of the nOn-college woman.
For women of all degrees of Ignorance
or learning the marriage age has ad-
vanced surprisingly in our generation
Our grandmothers tell of many four
teen. fifteen or sixteen year old brides
and our mothers of many mothers not
yet out of their teens.
The percentage of births per years
of marriage is slightly larger among
college women than among non-college
women.
The college women have ahigher
percentage 1851 of male children as
compared with non-college women
(47O.
The percentage of births of children
per years of marriage is slightly larg-
er among the college women than
among the non-college women
There is no measurable difference
between the twi classes in regard to
the health or mortality of children
Three-fourthS of the college women
married college men. while only one
half of the non-college women married
college men.
Sixty-five per cent of the college wo-
men. ascompared with 81 per cent of
the non-college women. married pro-
feSsional men.
From the financial standpoint the
college women married better than
the non-college women.
There is no record of the averages
of divorce in either set of women, no
figures with which to measure which
is the happier or which has the hap
pier husbands. but the figures show
that while college life does materially
affect the lives of the women who give
four years of their young womanhOod
to books, yet it does not swerve them
at all from the paths that women have
trod since the days of Eve. Not very
long ago there We're many people ar
guing that higher education would I'M
sex woman as there are many today
who claim that women will not be wo-
men if they enter politics. These peo-
pie might as well say that spring will
not bud out after the winters SHOWS |
and that summer will not blossom and !
the fall bring the death of summer |
as to say that woman's womanliness |
depends upon any limits that conven- |
or prejudice may put on her =
or activities.
People are talking about Marie |
again. Some hitherto I'M
published chapters of her remarkable
diary are being published in an En-
glish magazine and for the moment at
least, interest in her chroniclings of
herself, is revived. Ten or twelve
years ago. just after her death, por-
tons of her dairy was published, a
human document" Gladstone and